The Second Messiah (Rewrite)
by Phoenix of Rome
Summary: The Messiah has awoken after a long time, for aeons he was trapped in his seal but now he is freed into a brand new world, once more Humanity is on its last legs, already at the mercy of others, Humanity needs a saviour and what Hero would abandon Humanity to its fate? Well, not the Messiah!
1. Prologue

**I said I'd return one day, and here I am! With the freshly rewritten version of my story. Now that I've finally finished school _and _admissions I've got some time to write! Expect weekly updates, and of course, the credit for being my beta for this chapter goes to Chris4th.**

**~o~o~o~o~o~**

In a small unnamed town in Italy, a small whirlpool of light deposited a young blue-haired man at a road junction, with no one paying attention to him, in all likelihood manipulated by magic.

Standing at said junction the young man clenched and unclenched his hand for what felt like the thousandth time, he released a small shuddering breath as he continued looking thoughtfully at his unblemished hand, unmarked by his hardships.

He had been stranded in this strange new world, left wondering about his old world.

How many years had passed since his sacrifice to save humanity? Centuries? A Millennium? It certainly felt like a millennium had passed as his soul was battered again and again by the beast of the end.

Minato released a deep breath, before refocusing himself, it would be impossible to tell. At least by himself, as his soul was oppressed by the beast in the hopes of breaking him in silence.

He never did. Break, that is. Each day the beast came to destroy him, each day the beast merely made him stronger. The silence had jarred him but his friends, his closest companions, had kept him constant company.

Even though they were slightly subdued. It was Erebus' constant attacks that led to his own failure, they flared each day, rising from the sea of souls to ward the beast off.

And it was due to the daily struggle his solitude was broken through with gushes of light and warmth, Minato's lips curled upwards, remembering his Persona. The last memories of the friends he loved so dearly,

He walked on, slightly stumbling due to the lack of practice, before catching his pace and looked around at the unconcerned people as life went on as always, inside his mind he was still coming to terms with his sudden release from his prison.

His knowledge remained incomplete on a great many fronts, especially as he continued observing the town he had been sent to. New revelations had come to him one after another, the Kirijo Foundation did not exist, neither did Port City in this new bizarre world.

Considering it was a brand new world he had been feeling generally apathetic to the world, after his near breakdown of course.

His lips thinned as he remembered the panic that roared through his mind, he'd been left slumping against the wall with wide eyes as his connection to the sea of souls was cut.

Without his constant connection to his Persona he was stuck questioning his own experiences, darker thoughts of lunacy had invaded his mind but thankfully as far as dark phases went he handled it well enough eventually.

He'd got up and decided to busy himself with menial chores, like volunteering at the nearby church.

The first few nights had been jarring to go through, the silence had been overbearing as he only had his breathing to accompany him to his new quarters.

His eyes were vacant as he took in the passage of time, day and night passed by as he mechanically continued doing his chores. Truthfully the loss of coherency was expected.

But at the stroke of midnight five nights into his personal hell, with no warning or fanfare, **they** finally returned, those who had been by his side even in the darkest pit, with his very soul besieged by the beast that threatened humanity.

The moment he felt their arrival he immediately reached out, doing his best to summon them, refusing to move from his spot no matter what.

'Messiah?' Minato's eyes snapped open at the multiple voices asking the same question, his shoulders shook slightly as he leaned back before letting out a burst of joyous laughter that silenced all the voices from the sea of souls, it was the first time in a long while they had heard him openly _laugh_.

The ones who refused to let go of him in his eternal prison, the ones that even now held their ground by his side. All of them were back, from minor spirits Jack Frost to the first Seraph Helel, he almost spilt silent tears at the validation of his life.

He had not given his life for no reason, his friends, his experiences, the humanity he sacrificed his life to save -it was all real, so he had talked with them throughout the night, and then the day.

Slowly he had filled the gaping hole in his life, he **was **the Messiah, he **had **a purpose beyond the great seal, a reason to live -from ancient times to the information era there was one duty those who carried his title were destined to do, protect Humanity, and so in Italy a new Messiah took his place and the age of preservation when those who professed justice and light had let go of justice finally came to a slow halt after the Great War, old flames would awaken, a new golden generation of heroes would rise, unknown to all the _second _**age of miracles **had just begun, with the Messiah at its helm.

But for now, the Messiah had taken his time to mourn the things he had left behind, all the things he had lost and all the things he would never see.

He still remembered the last world fondly, their High School, Junpei's constant uplifting spirit, Fuuka's gentle kindness, Akihiko's protectiveness, Yukari's sarcastic responses and Mitsuru's gentle strictness, even SEES.

What had started as a school club had been the foundations on which pillars that made him a possibility, in many ways they were the reason humanity's saviour was born from bonds forged in a war.

He had taken his leave to mourn for the lost, and those he had been forced to leave behind while, the church kept supporting him through it, the kind nun giving him food freely despite his lack of work in the days following the return of his Persona.

Even when he did his chores in the church he was in deep thought as he conversed with his Persona. Michael had warned him of the mildly corrupt nature of the bishop in the church and but he stayed his hand resolved to not act till he gave any true reason, it was his Persona that had helped him through his darkest moment and let him recover.

Worse was the movements of the fallen, their outrageous movements so close to the heart of Christendom were shocking to the angels in the sea of souls, Sandalphon had wished to purge them from existence but Helel had ended that line of thought with nary a stare and a raised eyebrow at his younger brother.

"Goo-" His words were cut off by the nun despondent walking away from the church with tears in her eyes, Minato narrowed his eyes before turning to glare at the church with an accusatory glare.

He actually had a good relationship with the holy maiden, yet he had been unable to coerce the answer for her recent worries. She had assured him that she had found another path, but it gave him a sinking feeling in his gut.

He glared at the bishop as soon as he entered the church, "What did you do?" he said, quickly up slinging his bag back on, moving in between the bishop and the entrance.

The bishop broke away from his thoughts, "Asia Argento was excommunicated from the Church for her crimes," he said, though his eyes were stuck behind him and they had the beginning of both horror and anger with a tinge of regret.

'Fallen!' Sandalphon roared in his mind, just in time as Minato equipped Helel and let the light hit him, washing all over him.

He sighed, why couldn't any mission go like it was planned to? "How troublesome," He murmured.

"A Sacred Gear holder?" The Fallen murmured with a frown as he smiled apologetically, "I'm sorry, but it seems father did not favour you, child, surrender and I'll make this quick" The Fallen said solemnly, a guilty twinge in his voice, the two-winged fallen was quick to prepare another spear only to be interrupted by the bishop stepping up in front of Minato, quivering in fear but his eyes were resolute.

"No! You swore not to spill blood in the church!" he said with a shaky voice, before bracing himself and dismissing Minato, "Please run child, I've sealed my fate bu-but perhaps you can escape! I beg of you, try to save the young girl!" That said he'd tightly clenched a cross in his hand, murmuring a prayer as he readied himself.

"And you swore to be alone, I suppose we both lied eh?" The fallen said, snorting with a frown etched on his face, "The boy's blood is on your hand, choir boy," He launched both the spears one at him and one at the bishop, only to fizzle out halfway through due to the intervention of the Messiah.

Minato smiled at the bishop, not without hope, before deciding to move more openly. Time was of essence, therefore there was a need to go all out, "If you flee now it would save us both time, and time is something I'm short on I suppose," he said, finally letting Helel take over, Minato's blue hair kept darkening until it was as black as a raven and eyes developed golden rings around his Irises.

"You just had to resist, _forgive me, father,_" The Fallen said despondently, quickly firing off his new spears ignoring Minato's change of appearance only to find them dissipated as well, however now he was slightly wary and slowly edging back towards his exit.

It was too late, the black-haired boy had already let Helel take over, as the angel had a fitting punishment in mind, "I forgot why you lot fall in the first place, never listening," Helel said with a wry smile as he moved in front of the bishop, sighing tiredly, sometimes orders were meant to be followed, he thought, annoyed at the rebellious child in front of him before he released some of his power, making sure none escaped the church.

"**Kneel,**" he declared, for once letting some of the power contained within him leak through. He was the lord of the sixth heaven. Impertinence was rarely endearing to him, especially when he was short on time.

The Fallen whimpered at the sign of power, he tried to retreat, to fly or walk back but he gasped as his body rejected his will and kneeled however that was nothing compared to the terror he felt as he gazed at the form of Helel, whose twelve wings now open for the bishop and the fallen to gaze at, "**He** has given you his light and yet you betray his faith, have you no shame, brother? That you would hunt the defenceless and taint the pure?" Helel said, his eyes blazed white for a moment, gathering information from the fallen's mind quickly, he honestly felt nothing but pity for the Fallen.

Over the years many had given way to crimes and deeds best left unspoken, at the same time so many had fallen because they had taken upon themselves to carry out justice and curb the rising injustice as Heaven fully withdrew from mortal affairs at large. Indignation was fueled in him, Angels shouldn't fall for enforcing justice unless the sixth, '_Oh Michael,' _Helel mentally groaned.

Helel shook his head in annoyance, his little brother and he needed to have a long-overdue chat it seems, about how one behaved as the Lord of the Sixth Heaven.

"I-i Apologise my lord," The Fallen said, he was quivering by now Helel had let go of the reigns that stopped held his power, "Please, I swear on my life I'll be better, pl-lease," The Fallen was staring at him in terror, "I-I don't want to die, _please_," A well of pity was already opened in Helel's heart it only pained him further to see him beg like this, a brother reduced to begging after falling for disobeying orders. It irked him deeply, cutting far too close to his heart for his comfort.

Helel stared at him, without breaking his steely gaze, "Many of our brothers would have you slain for tainting our Father's gift and twisting his light. I cannot confidently say once I would have not done the same to you," Helel said, how could he slay the fallen when the one in front of him had fallen for breaking the policy of non-intervention and dealing his own justice, a policy he was against very firmly, the concepts that made his soul rebelled against such a law!

The Fallen closed his eyes, thinking of his rebellion, of the swathes of dead winged men and women of wings both ivory and raven, before a single thought came to the forefront, '_No More_.'

"But I am not the same as I once was, and nor do I wish to slay more kin than I already have," he said, regret-tinged him as remembered the great war. Helel pressed a finger on the fallen's collarbone, and soon enough the fallen wing flickered away much to his horror and Helel's grim satisfaction.

"Live amongst the humans brother, repent but not for father, repent for thyself, redemption comes not from father but from within, and one day join the heavenly host once more serving father and his light," Helel said as his eyes lit up again, balance would be restored, "The great preservation is almost at an end."

The Fallen looked relieved yet aghast at the notion of losing his wings but the look soon evolved to one of grim determination. Usually, he would be averse to returning to Heaven due to why he was banished, yet for some reason, he felt an odd connection to this Seraph in front of him.

And against common thought, falling was not pleasant even if the act that caused the fall might have been satisfactory the fall itself constantly gave a severe feeling that always made them feel like the Lord was disappointed in them, but if the word came from an angel as strong as the one that towered over him then perhaps reconciliation was possible just yet and redemption was not some mad angel's dream.

The Fallen were not mad dogs, a fair few had fallen for minor sins like minor lust, a lot regretted the fall. They would swarm at an opportunity to return to the fold, "I swear it by his name, I will not fail you again my Lord, may we reunite again in a better time in the gardens of heaven," the Fallen said, and he was gently let go off as he left the church silently, "May I know your name, my lord, Heaven has a limited amount of Seraphs and I have no knowledge of one as distinct of you?" His eyes had an uncanny fervour in them.

Helel smiled before letting his aura turn more gentle and warm, activating his projection abilities,

**I was father's most trusted son**

Helel's wings spread wide open, showcasing his pure white wings, all twelve wings displaying the colour of heaven,

**The Leader of his legions**

An armour that was lost after the Great Rebellion flashed onto him, a sword long lost to the armory of Hell, and a face lost to time,

**The Champion of his peerless light**

His light-filled the Church, the eyes of the Fallen nearly popped out in surprise at the outrageous thought that came to his mind, the light was familiar yet so different to him, a light that lost its warmth to rebellion surely it _simply could not be!_

**I am Helel, Eldest son of Heaven**

The Fallen slumped down gazing at the angel in disbelief and then at his wings before once more looking at the Angel itself before silently leaving after a nod from Helel, awe present on his face as he left.

As soon as the fallen was out of the church Helel turned to the bishop, his eyes glowing white, **"And what is it that you have done?"** he said, utilising projection to get the information he needed without hurting the man, he was a man of the cloth after all, and killing a defenceless man was not his job.

The bishop squeaked in terror before quickly spilling his plan whilst flinching at the seemingly angered Seraph, he explained how they would send the Holy Maiden outside the protection of the church and to a rather untimely fallen plot. Helel just sighed at the stupidity shown by the bishop, did he think the Vatican would let him live after such heretical acts?

Looking at the silent bishop he thinned his lips, before raising an eyebrow at the signs, or rather a lack of, protesting against his judgement, "**Have you no words, bishop?**"

The Bishop kept his head bowed, before shaking his head, "I have sinned deeply, and my sins have led to the endangerment of an innocent. I have one request lord Helel," He finally raised his head and looked into Helel's eyes, "Please save that girl, she is an innocent flower, undeserving of the fruits of my sins."

"**It is not often a mortal is able to do what you are, Bishop. It is true, you sinned, and it is also true you have endangered the innocent but no soul is damned by one action, especially one easily solved. I know better than any how one could fall, and be tempted,**" Helel flared his aura again, this time enveloping the Bishop warmly, "**And thus I know better than any, that one can redeem himself from the depths of hell itself!**"

The Bishop was crying now, his shoulders sinking in relief with his bravado broken by the mercy of the angel, Helel smiled and rubbed his head, "And thus I know, sometimes all you need to know is that **I accept you**."

With his hand still on the Bishop's head he put him to sleep, placing him on the floor unharmed and cast a relatively strong ward of light over the church, the Bishop would remain safe now it was the time to save a nun.

Helel withdrew back as Minato's body changed back to normal with a few gold flakes in his eyes being the only signs of Helel ever being there.

The Blue-haired boy was quick to exit and sprint to the direction he could still sense the Nun in, aided by Helel, he was relieved at seeing the nun sitting on the bench with her luggage next to her safely.

He bit his lip nervously, he didn't have the faintest idea if he should have intervened further, or if he should comfort Asia as she had comforted him.

Perhaps it was not his right to intervene, but no hero could leave innocents to despair. He firmed himself, and mustering his courage he took the space next to her on the bench, he might be the Messiah but he was most certainly not the person to comfort the girl. He hardly made speeches like some of his more mouthy Persona.

But he owed it to Asia, she had been one of the few stars that had given him relief from his grief, and he'd rather be damned then give up on her without even trying.

The dive through the Fallen's mind had revealed that supposedly the Nun had healed a hidden devil and the Fallen were keen on obtaining her gear and so they exposed her, pushing the wheels so that she was excommunicated quickly by the bishop who went into this scheme in return for the Fallen hiding one of his secrets.

Curiously he had sent inquiries about the excommunication to Metatron, who was very clear and firm in his mind, 'The rules of heaven are strict by need not want Messiah, but if the assumptions about the girl are right then the girl has not committed a breach large enough to actually be corrupted, I can sense her aura it is still pure.'

"It wasn't your fault," he said confidently, reassured by the Voice of God, the blunt statement startling the blonde nun who almost fell off the bench in surprise.

She hadn't even noticed him sitting next to her, her sad personality was quite the contrast with her usual bubbly personality.

She sniffed, "How would you know, Minato-san?" Asia was quick to hide her tears and greet him politely with a small smile on her face, had he not been here moments ago he might have actually believed about this act of hers.

Minato smiled mysteriously, doing his best to ease the young girl, "Well I have a friend whose brother knows someone in heaven, and they said you're as pure as they come."

Minato winced as he saw the teary hopeful eyes of the nun, "Really? You promise?" she said, excited with hope shining in her eyes, was she really about to trust him out of the blue about knowing an angel?

He hesitated, not knowing what to do before taking a cue from Helel and gave the best imitation of a comforting smile he could have, "Of course, I've got a good source for my information."

"Thank you, mister, although I will be leaving- the church still has me excommunicated and I have to go to the only place I'm allowed in a church," She said, wiping her eyes before smiling brightly at him, "I really appreciate you trying to comfort me."

Minato looked troubled, something deep inside him told him to stop her, to not let her go off to wherever she had apparently been invited to, "And where exactly are you off too?" he asked, trusting his gut, if it could guide him through Tartarus it could guide him through this situation.

The nun looked around a little nervously before leaning in conspiratorial, as if telling him a secret, "Japan."

Minato's eyes widened before a vain sense of amusement accompanied by hope rose in his mind, he was already thinking about going to Japan and check on his homeland.

Besides, he would be better off in Japan regardless, and a large part of him wished to go home even if home was not exactly there anymore, "Don't let me stop you," he said, smiling slightly as he got up after the Nun too dusted her skirt and prepared to leave, "But it seems that both of our destinations," Minato said, smiling for real for the first time since arriving in this world, "are the same."

The Nun looked to stop him before he winked at her before using Helel's powers once more and swiftly vanished in a flash of white light, leaving behind a pure white feather that radiated light and hope. Glowing brilliantly showing the way through the darkness like the Morning Star had aeons ago when he served his father before he had rebelled.

Asia gasped as she clasped the feather clutching it like a precious relic, which in all fairness it probably was, before smiling brightly realising it was an angel that promised her she was not barred from heaven for an act so small, "I promise I won't fail you again, my lord," she said, before mumbling another small prayer Asia got ready once more, before departing to get a taxi- and then go to Japan as the exorcist had told her to go.

Minato appeared in a well warded alley in a brilliant flash of light, Minato stifled a smile at Belial muttering, 'Too bright,' in his mind, mostly to tease the Seraph before withdrawing.

Minato sighed as the events of days flashed by again after he unequipped Helel, before sighing again, '_How troublesome_._'_ Now he had to get to Japan, not that it would be a real problem with his Persona, the main problem would be the reaction of the 'factions,' they would be very wary about his Persona especially if he summoned anyone who was still alive.

So he sat down in the warded alley he had teleported to, beginning to form the framework of a plan.

He'd have to use a Persona unrelated to the pantheons of gods that existed according to the bishop. And the Biblical factions were there too, it stumped him why the Biblical factions would try to establish themselves in Japan, wouldn't it be wiser to situate themselves somewhere not so close to the Shinto gods? In all fairness the home bases of all three were out of Japan, so perhaps were they fighting over Japan? As it stood he'd have to pull a Persona used to disguise himself, and a quite powerful one as well.

He kept on thinking, delving deep into the sea of souls before smiling as the perfect Persona came to his mind, The Archmage Merlin- suitably powerful yet suitably human, the Archmage of Camelot would be the perfect escort for him, he was one of the most powerful humans to live on Earth, calm and collected he seemed inhuman at times but many a time the Great Councillor had proven his wit and might.

With a deep breath, equipping Merlin, Minato let his breath out, "_Persona_," he said, exhaling as a swirl of energy encircled him, bursting with radiant silver light.

With a swirl of energy a silver-haired man wearing a white overcoat appeared with a smile he winked at his lord.

**I am the guardian of Camelot**

Minato shook his head with a sigh, "We're short on time Merlin, you can show off later," Looking around at the empty alley he raised an eye, "Preferably when somewhere is actually there to see the theatrics."

Merlin pouted, stopping his projection, before raising his eyebrow, "Go on and ruin my bombastic entry, we'll see who laughs when you're hair is pink," He said with no real bite in his words, but he had done it in the past to Arthur.

"Bad Archmage," the Messiah said, and turned around preparing to leave -the threat of a prank fazed him little- and walked out of the alley they were in, "Come on, we've got a plane to catch."

Merlin snapped his fingers making his staff vanish and his overcoat turned into something of a more modern design though it was arguably a blue trench coat was fitting but he was a mage and mages were known to be the oddest bunch, "And who'll give us the tickets, Messiah?"

Minato looked pointedly at him, "You're an Archmage of immense power."

Merlin chuckled, "Excellent point, Messiah" before he cloaked them and opened a portal. Before closing it after blushing as he remembered the last time he'd been in Italy was Centuries ago.

Minato raised his brow questioningly, "I don't know where the airport is," Merlin said, an embarrassed mumble escaping the Archmage's mouth as he pouted, "Come on this way,'' He said walking to call a taxi and head for the airport.

"I'm not a child you know?" Merlin said, voice a little bit whiny as he followed his lord, taking in the looks of his surroundings, "Do you think we should do some research before leaving? Talk to the pope maybe?" The Pope would be glad to talk to the Messiah, even if he only chose to reveal Helel.

Minato stopped for a moment, before shaking his head, "I don't think so, the entire point of summoning you instead of Metatron, Bael or Odin is entirely to lay low for now, besides I came to know plenty by reading the fallen's mind," As it stood he needed to take a closer look and properly assess the situation, nothing was as it was meant to be. Why would angels allow injustice to pass and withdraw from the world? And the demons be reduced to devils? Just what in God's name had happened here?

Soon enough they were on their way sitting in a taxi with Minato and Merlin gazing out of their windows watching the city as they went.

Merlin was already stretching his magical senses as far and wide as he could whilst maintaining secrecy, spreading his senses to look for any danger or secret in the city and though it took nearly some time after they had boarded their taxi and after a whilst they were at their destination, the airport.

"We're here," The taxi driver grunted as they pulled up to the airport, startling Merlin out of his thoughts on how little magic he sensed during their drive to the airport before turning to Minato who was sleeping. It was rather shocking to see what once used to be the hub of magic be so dry, he could sense those with potential -indeed he had identified two with a mine of untapped potential but there was no grouping of magic like the old times.

Except for light oriented mages but those were presumably the church mages they liked calling exorcists. Well, those and some Fallen Angels he could sense, the absurdity of him actually being able to look over all of Italy whilst maintaining secrecy had baffled him, just what had happened to the mages that were resident to Europe? They weren't of his calibre but they weren't this _defenceless._

Minato's eyes flickered open as Merlin poked him a couple of times, "We're here, Me-" he said, stopping at Messiah as his eyes quickly flickered to the driver and back to Minato, "My lord," Some things even a spell could not make the man misinterpret.

Minato nodded and handed the payment to the driver before nodding to Merlin, as he and Merlin walked towards the counter they took tickets that were obtained by Merlin. Japan it seemed, was to be the latest host to the Messiah. And so started a series of events that would change the balance of power completely, because the wild card had finally arrived.

~o~o~o~o~o~

Minato looked out of the window as their plane smoothly landed in Kyoto, he and Merlin were still following the nun, Merlin had already confirmed that his feeling was right so he had cast an illusion spell and they had been on their way to wherever the nun went to.

The nun had gotten off the flight and taken another car though this time it Merlin was quick to warn him of the malice radiating from the being, a white-haired man quite distinctly European in origin. That and the white-haired human reeked of malice even to his senses, and he was barely using any of the sensing ability he had gained due to equipping Helel.

Merlin looked confused, "They're going to… Kuoh Town?" He looked at Minato, "Where's that?" He himself knew much about Japan as he had a lot of time to talk with the other Persona, but he had never heard of a Kuoh Town.

"The Taxi drivers should know the details right?" the Messiah said, shrugging it mattered very little where Kuoh was, especially since he was not about to leave the nun with that horrid man, it wouldn't be surprising if Kuoh was a minor town, there were a lot of those in Japan and he could hardly remember the name of all of those.

Merlin blinked, "Do we have a plan, milord?" Merlin asked, he had faith in the Messiah and his prowess but he had always liked having a well-defined plan and advised Arthur to plan his campaigns as well and this was similar to those times when the promised king would have some bizarre idea and rush through to implement it with the subtlety of a bull, it usually worked, but most things did when you wielded a handheld holy nuclear bomb like Arthur.

"We go to Kuoh and prevent harm from befalling the nun till we find out what's bugging all the Angels out so much and just what's up with the demons," It seemed the Messiah believed the best of plans were the simplest ones, much like Arthur himself. _We have no immediate plan _Merlin thought with a wry smile.

As they hailed a taxi Minato continued to worry about much of what he learned from that fallen, but much of his worry was fueled by Helel and other angels but he fretted on his own as well. For Samael to be cursed for such a long time and Azrael leaving on her own, in a time when the only faction that he could support, _other than humans but that is hardly a faction_, was already down many of their strongest angel they could hardly spare two other twelve winged angels.

He had already thought about the devil reincarnation and after convening with Solomon, Bael, Metatron and Helel they all agreed that it was in all likelihood a corrupting and enslaving device no matter the intentions of those who revived the aforementioned humans, supporting his opinion was the fact he _knew _Bael, and heavens knew that the giant demon was not one who prayed for others, "We have to do a lot of things," he said, as a grimace took over his face as the memory of the Nekomata Massacre came to him, another memory he had gained from the fallen angel, the reason the fallen had fallen in the first place. Going against the wishes of Heaven and trying to dive into hell to save some of the Youkai. It did not inspire any confidence in him about the demons.

Though startled at the prompt change of tone Merlin nodded in agreement, "The situation is dire for Humanity, it's fairly easy to understand why you were sent here my lord."

Minato raised his eyebrow questioningly, Merlin smiled an ever-present twinkle in his eyes, "Well when times are dark and the master of light himself falters who shall stand up and protect the innocent, but the Messiah himself."

Minato nodded in agreement, before finally deciding on his next course of action as their taxi came to a stop as they reached Tokyo, Kuoh was within walking distance- but before that, he walked into an alley to summon a Persona.

One that would protect the nun whilst he left to do something extremely important, gathering the well-remembered Persona to his mind, once more delving into the sea of souls he ignoring Merlin as he set up a small invisibility barrier and a moderate anti-spying field, "**Persona**!"

With a small flash of grey light, one of the most feared holy swords came into existence, with the standard of the royal house engraved on his breast.

**I am the greatest Paladin**

His armour as brilliant as the day he fought for his previous lord,

**Heathens fear me and the Loyal embrace me**

His sword gleamed under the light of the sun, appearing nearly peerless in an ethereal beauty, had he not seen Excalibur he would have called it the most beautiful sword in existence.

**My swordsmanship akin to my sword**

He had blonde hair and blue eyes, broad-shouldered yet lean, his stance was well-practised, the perfect warrior,

**I am the Paladin of Charlemagne**

He raised his sword, and it gleamed, in an expression that would make daemons and fallen quiver and angels roar in triumph,

**I am Roland, the master of Durandal's peerless Blade**.

Minato just looked at the knight with a deadpan stare whilst Merlin looked at him accusingly, "Why did he finish and I get a thump?!" He said, pouting at the Messiah who just shook his head, slightly amused.

Roland smiled before returning to his poker face, "It matters little my magical friend, the Messiah has desires for our aid and we shall give it!" Merlin sighed muttering something about good-for-nothing knights and Arthur before nodding in agreement with an exasperated smile much to the amusement of both Minato and Roland.

Minato had given great thought to the plan he would commit to, in his sleep he had converser greatly with Solomon on how to proceed and they had the beginning of a plan ready, the first item on their agenda? Jailbreak a la Helel.

"I'll be going to the Greek part of the underworld, and try to retrieve Samael and then I shall seek and get back Azrael, that is if she wants to join us. Metatron and Helel will help in redeeming the first and finding the second, whilst I do that you two shall be looking after the nun," He said, waiting for a moment to get affirmative nods before continuing on.

"If anything happens Merlin will open a gate to me and I'll come over. I have faith that two of the strongest Archangels and the king of Olympus can handle not having me around for some time even _if _they have to deal with Hades for whilst," The first agenda was extremely important, they **had **to bolster the strength of Heaven in the face of constant decline it had suffered across the Millenia. There was no shorter way of bolstering the strength of heaven other than actively getting back the twelve winged angels they could.

Roland nodded in agreement bowing his head in deference, "As you wish Messiah, you have my word that the Wizard and I shall protect that nun unto our death and beyond!"

Merlin nodded along before casting another level of secrecy, "There, some Youkai were trying to spy on us, that should stop them from even trying," He said, snorting with a huff, "As if they can breach _my _wards, I will also do my level best to see if there is a way to turn the humans back from devils, Messiah."

"Well then, we should be on our way!" Roland said, his voice booming as he blinked innocently as both Minato and Merlin stared at him, "Is something wrong?"

Merlin looked pointedly at his armour, "You're a gigantic perfect blonde blue-eyed germano-french paladin wielding a holy sword that'll give the daemons nightmares from miles, _can you attempt to hide_?!" he said, the last part in exasperation, "I swear you holy knights do it to annoy me," he said, mumbling something about Galahad being just as annoying in this matter.

"You are a wizard, hide us, my friend," Roland said his blunt response only making Merlin sigh, though his annoyance had quickly turned into amusement.

"You're lucky I'm **me**, any normal wizard would never be able to hide you," Merlin said, waving a hand over the paladin, casting a concealing and an illusion spell on his comrade, why did Roland remind him so much of one of the boy scouts?

The Messiah was glad that Roland and Merlin got along, he was slightly hesitant about choosing the paladin above Galahad or Arthur but Galahad did not possess a holy sword, well not one that could do what Durandal could, not to say he was weak, in a fair fight both Galahad and Arthur had a rather even chance of winning. Arthur was probably going to release light all over Japan before restraining himself, that man didn't know what restraint meant.

"I'll see you both in Kuoh," Minato said, nodding at Merlin and Roland, "I have a Greek God to make a request to."

With a flash of silver light Helel once more merged with him whilst this time he equipped him whilst summoning Zeus himself, the god of thunder and drama understanding the occasion and not projecting, though not for the lack of a desire to do it.

"Farewell Messiah!" Merlin said, respectfully bowing before turning away to leave.

"Take care Messiah, I can't think of anyone better to redeem the fallen than you," Roland said, marching ahead of Merlin fairly easily matching Merlin's pace with his longer strides.

With that said Minato nodded towards Zeus, who nodded back and in a bolt of lightning the Messiah and the King of Olympus transported themselves to the domain of his brother, Hades the god of the underworld.

"You're not dropping the armour are you?" Merlin asked with a hefty sigh, why this was like that time he had gone *_undercover_* with Lancelot.

"Never my friend!" The Paladin said, cheer dotting his reply only made Merlin sigh even more, nay not even Lancelot was this cheery, whilst they infiltrated the coven of death dragon cultists in the Catacombs of Paris.

"God help me," Merlin said sighing in amused annoyance, removing the barrier walking out followed by the Paladin of Charlemagne, "Better look for the nun," He muttered, snapping his fingers and subsequently checking for his tracer when it did not respond before snorting, it would have been too easy had it worked.

"Come Myrdin, there are adventures to be had!" Roland said, his voice boomed as he took off smiling, taking in the new look of the modern city walking towards the general direction of Kuoh.

"Wait for me!" Merlin yelled, running to catch up with the Paladin who had naturally long strides, "Not everyone is a perfect human!"

Up ahead the paladin of Charlemagne boomed in laughter as he kept walking.

~o~o~o~o~o~

Hades was sitting on his throne, as usual with Persephone next to him as he let his bored gaze look over hell before a vast boom of thunder well _boomed_ despite being leagues away from the palace. And the whole complex being underground.

The god of death sighed as he took his more heavenly aspect of a raven-haired man wearing black and red robes wielding his Scepter, "Ostentatious as ever brother," he said, rolling his eyes, why would he ever come discreetly when he could be in his favoured domain of drama.

Persephone looked at him inquisitively, "Father has come my dear?"

Hades grumbled, "Who else is this noisy miles off, I swear he does it to annoy Poseidon and me."

Persephone chuckled as one of the strongest beings complained about his brother being a noisy neighbour, "We should greet father shouldn't we, he _is _our king?"

"No need the oaf's coming to u-"

Before Hades could complete his sentence he was emphasised by the doors slamming opening with a crackle, "Brother! I see you are well! You as well daughter!" Zeus said, his rumbling voice was hard to miss.

"I see you've yet to change," Hades said with a wry smile as he rolled his eyes.

Zeus roared with laughter as he pulled in Hades for a hug, "Never!" Before hugging his daughter as well whilst the Messiah stood there, waiting for the family reunion to end.

Hades's eye twitched before it landed on Minato who was just watching this happen with a look that said he did not believe what was happening. He could feel heaven's light in the boy, weren't they supposed to be enemies?

"How did you happen to come here, father?" Persephone said, the joyous mood was quickly cooled down by the appearance of the human, he felt _odd_, holy even.

Zeus suddenly grew serious as he looked pointedly at Persephone, "I'm afraid this is an Olympian level issue, my dear."

She rolled her eyes and left their room, huffing, "Honestly I'm a big girl now, I can attend meetings too you know?"

Hades looked at him warily, raising an eyebrow, "An Olympian issue not being discussed with the council brother?"

Zeus just railroaded onwards, still looking more sombre as he faced his brother, "I shall endeavour to be honest brother, we are here to visit Samael."

Hades eyes narrowed, "cooperating with the Christians _again?_" he said with contempt oozing through his voice, his eyes narrowing with an accusatory glare.

Zeus sighed, "Brother please, your fight is with the flying cows, not the pigeons," He looked at Hades pointedly, raising an eyebrow, "Or have you begun to aim your bitterness towards the Angels as well?"

Hades just then snapped his fingers and a door appeared, "I have not much against the angels, but beware she who guards the cursed, she was pure once, now… now she is something _unique. _Though I hardly feel one would face any trouble with her, she is after all greatly weakened."

The angel of death had exiled herself from heaven yet somehow, perhaps because of the purity of her intentions she had not fallen yet, a unique case of an angel weakening so much without dying or changing colours.

Minato just nodded, agreeing to the request by Helel to let him take over, as his twelve wings spread wide he looked at the Greek god, "_By his name_, which one of my siblings was not scared or foolish enough to permanently reside in the underworld?"

Hades stared at him, narrowing his eyes at the angel, before nodding at the door tersely, "Azrael guards your brother forever hoping **he** would forgive him," Hades snorted sardonically as his eyes remained fixed on Helel, "It doesn't matter if he's dead."

Helel snorted sardonically at the idea of his death, shaking his head in amused disagreement as he walked towards the door, "I noticed the lack of his constant light over us, he sleeps, he slumbers, he is weakened exponentially. But trust my word on this, killing God," He looked into Hades eyes, "_**Is Bloody Hard,**_" he said, his self here had fought him four times, and despite being weakened so greatly not once they had come close to the feat of defeating him, not conclusively at least.

Hades raised an eye, staring at the angel's back with an amused yet suspicious glare before turning to face his brother, "Did that angel just swear?"

Zeus snorted, "I doubt he was on Nicky's good list before that either."

"_I'll have you know I've only got coal three times over the millennia!_" The Angel yelled over his back as he descended into the prison.

Zeus chortled at Helel's reply, before releasing a deeper laugh.

Samael had always been a prankster joking and japing even whilst in heaven and his humour was usually well-received, even by the heavenly father, though that was a low standard, in all honesty, father loved them all.

But his last prank was too much for even her father, he who had remained calm in the face of countless adversaries and his own child starting a war against him, like lava from a volcano his rage erupted furiously, he who had forseen the consequences of Samael's actions- of the great war- had cast down Samael, to be eternally punished for what the events he had unleashed, Azrael had begged father to reconsider- even Metatron tried to get him to consider shortening his sentence, just when it seemed like they would get him to budge both Metatron and he _died_.

But her father refused to budge even before that, how could he ever forgive Samael when he had imperilled so many of his siblings? Perhaps he would have eventually spared Samael, she would never know for he himself perished avoiding the fate wrought by Samael.

She was shaking as she gazed at the one who entered the prison, she did not have much strength left- for so long she had starved herself of all that Angels thrived off, almost imprisoned with her brother. Thus it was a reasonable error she mistook Helel in his glorious light shining as brightly as the old days when the Morning Star brought father's light to the people, after all Helel was dead, and who else had a light so close to their father? "Fa-Father?"

Helel's eyes widened before rage flooded his veins at the condition of his sister, horrified and furious at the same time, he was thankful for the barriers that separate this place from the main underworld. For he could not control his own light as it radiated pouring onto the small prison as if the ocean was enveloping as island very briefly he felt like those old days, the days when he was filled with anger and rage and only at the insistence of the Messiah he stopped.

Only to be horrified again by looking at his black wings, he had gone into his fallen form unconsciously, with great determination he changed back to his angelic form. His sister needed Helel, the Lord of the Sixth Heaven, the loving brother of all of his siblings. Not Lucifer Morningstar, the rebelling kinslayer.

At the same time, Minato took over briefly in order to summon another angel, before letting Helel take over again, "**Persona!**"

This one was an angel of metal, his metallic face shining with the same intensity of light Helel released had released, he was Metatron, the Voice of God.

"Aide Azrael brother, I'll see to Samael," Helel said, his voice was soft but underneath its softness, the iron of the former lord of the sixth heaven was still heard clearly by Metatron who nodded and carried a certain edge of steel in his voice.

Metatron walked over to his sister, gently holding her, before wielding the light of his father to do something he had often seen his father do, heal. Light flooded into his sister through their linked arms as she gasped, "B-Brother? You are ali-ive?"

Metatron simply nodded before pushing even more light to his sister, he would never be able to heal her completely, wounds and scars suffered over a millennia in a moment,** "All will be alright sister, you have my word," **Azrael had already slacked in his arms, her wings rapidly blazing back to their pure white colour, Metatron cracked a rare smile, **"Sleep well sister, for today thy brother shall watch over thee, so says I, his voice."**

His light was all that she knew as she fell asleep in his arms, he continued his gentle ministrations to her wings, grooming them warmly as they greedily absorbed his light to heal, his eyes solely devoted to his sister, a small whisper escaping his mouth, "**I'm sorry. I failed you.**"

"We both did," Helel whispered.

Helel couldn't help but release a tear at the sight of Samael, his downtrodden form, even if it was not the Samael he originally knew he still loved his brother all the same, hollow eyes leaked blood constantly, his mouth was sealed with fangs poking out.

His wings, the very wings that he was so proud of were nailed and tarnished, looking like the wings of a fallen angel, his legs were gone, replaced with the body of the beasts he was once the bane of. Draconic scales were all he could really see if Helel himself was not a veteran of the great war he would have emptied his stomach.

"Brother, always the radiant prankster," Helel looked down sadly as another tear escaped his eye, "Till one day you took it too far," He shook his head slowly, before gently patting his shoulder and wincing as the angel flinched at his touch.

"How many of our brother and sisters fell or died in the war that begun by thy hands Samael?" Helel said before sighing, what point was asking questions before healing the prankster?

Helel was surprised to hear some mumble come from Samael's bound mouth his hands glowed as they moved across his mouth, ignoring the small cut on his fingers from his fangs, "What say thee, Brother?"

Samael lifter his face, his hollow eyes digging into his brothers stomach deeper than any daggers ever could, "I...said to-too many," before tears began pooling in where his eyes should have been as they cascaded down, "I am so sorry...always sorry, I accept this punishment. For there is no redemption for one who has sinned like I, the daemons merely did the deed, I am the one who killed them all," true regret coming from Samael shook even Helel, who was taken aback, so much regret. His father had clearly underestimated how sorry Samael would be, and it became his undoing for he never repented for he never wished to leave his punishment. He truly felt as if this punishment was _just_.

Helel gripped his hands slowly pushing his healing light into Samael's body, "Usually I let those who fall discover such for themselves, but, you deserve another chance brother," he said, or maybe it was horror at the condition of his kin that drove him, but all the same he was never going to let such a thing stand, and neither would the Messiah.

He started unravelling Samael's curse, "**Thee has repented**," His body, once looking like that of a monster slowly turned back into one belonging to an angel.

"**Thee has been punished**," His arms were healed, his wings turning back to the murky black of the fallen but with each word from Helel they turned lighter.

"**But the lesson thee must understand**," His eyes healed as in front of Helel stood an angel with twelve brownish wings.

"**That so long as thee does not wish in thy heart to serve his purpose again, to once more fly with our brothers of silver, to once more defend the righteous and the innocent from the horrors of the darkness**," He finished healing Samael who stared back at him.

Samael himself clinging to each word, and slowly turning back to the silver city, "**Redemption comes from within, neither I nor father could redeem you. Only thy can**."

Helel looked into his eyes, "**I ask of thee brother, who are you**?"

Samael clenched his fists, a new flame appearing in his eyes, "**I am Samael! The Bane of Dragons**" Light flared from a third source as bright as Metatron and Helel, "**The Son of God!**" His wings as pure as Helel's, white without an inkling of black on them.

They turned to Metatron who had Azrael in his arms, Helel was smiling, "Then let's get out of this hellho-"

He paused as a blue bird flashed in front of him, the angel frowned at the message, and scrunched his eyes, "_How troublesome_, what now Merlin?"

"We might have a problem," The Mage hesitated and let the sounds in the background seep in.

"MY SPINE!"

"Oh LORD NOT THERE!"

"Ple-ae-s not my-" The voice cut off with a massive heart wrenching screaming sob.

"THIS IS CHEATING, UNFa-"

Merlin gulped audibly, before cutting off the sounds in the background, "Roland might have gone Rambo on a rouge exorcist base and I'm fairly sure the devils sensed him before I cloaked us."

Helel released a sigh, as he massaged his head, "_**How. Troublesome**_."

As he was about to leave the Messiah dispelled Helel's persona, summoning him separate to himself and staring at the door with an annoyed look in his eyes, "We might have to fight."

"Brother, what's going on?" Samael questioned, his eyes fixated at the back of what appeared to be a young boy in confusion.

"Later," The angel murmured, "Fight whom, Messiah, surely some exorcists don't require _both _Metatron and I?"

"_Messiah?_" Samael murmured with wide eyes.

"**They don't. He might," **Metatron rumbled, pointing at the God of Death standing in their way, radiating an aura of chilling death with an apologetic Zeus standing behind him.

"I thought I'd been mistaken when I had sensed you, but the voice of God as well," Hades chuckled before abruptly letting out a small snarl, "_Do you take me for a fool?_** How are the dead walking amongst the living**_**, Lucifer?**_"

_**~Fin~**_

_**There goes the first chapter, suitably different style of writing and timeline to start our story off. Don't forget to review, as always I will try to respond as soon as I can.**_


	2. Chapter One

**A/N: To clear something up all the Personas have synced with their DxD memories up till the end of the Great War, and yes Zeus and Hades will eventually find out about Minato once they bother to talk to each other.**

**Thanks for all the support! Also, just for fun, I'm adding some stuff from the future in the quotes on the front.**

~O~

_A gaze filled with disdain and pity, looked at the fallen soldier, "Is this your faith? Is this devotion of the heir of this blade?! __**Tell me if you collapse at the whispers of a Fallen, just how did you ever expect to wield this blade?**__"_

~O~

While the Messiah and his party rescued Samael, the duo of Merlin and Roland were still investigating Kuoh. It was a relatively small town that had only recently popped up having very little to speak about other than the massive hub of activities it seemed to represent for the Devils.

Merlin returned his thoughts to Tokyo, it had been impossible to not notice the overbearing presence of the Shinto Pantheon, always ready to intervene on the ground. That wasn't even mentioning the _vast_ Youkai population of Tokyo.

Looking at another devil acting as a shopkeep, Merlin's eyes narrowed at the man before he let out a sigh and kept walking with clenched fists. Kuoh was 'Devil Territory'. He was sure of that conclusion, thus it wasn't a surprise that the gods were absent from the city.

"Thank you," The archmage murmured as he took a flyer from a familiar dressed up as a teenage girl, flipping it over he analyzed the pattern once more, and then was disappointed at the result again.

As it stood he noticed no malicious intent in the flyer's composition, it's magic was entirely, so, so _pathetically _**innocuous**. This just made his worries rise as his suspicions of the devils were already high, but the spell did not lie to him.

All the flyers did was drain a minute amount of energy proportional to the effort exerted on the task the summoned devil accomplished with checks in place to ensure that no death occurred and nothing even pertained to the soul of the contractor.

"If it were the old days we'd have run them over by now," Roland deadpanned with a blank stare at the fifth devil they'd noticed.

Merlin raised an eyebrow with a soft snort at Roland's deadpan statement, "It doesn't seem like they're evil, Roland," He patted the paladin's head with a soft smile whilst looking at the uncomfortable paladin, "Your past is showing again, old friend. Should we not offer them some rope? After all, it would be remiss for us to be close-minded to the possibility of these devils not being evil," Merlin said with a bright smile, as unreal as the thought seemed to him, as well.

The Paladin sighed, "My apologies, there are times when my...previous life makes it hard to maintain objectivity," The Paladin smiled wryly, "But should be glad that I haven't unleashed upon them the full wrath of a jolly good man!"

The Archmage of Camelot chuckled at his friend and shook his head amusedly, "Yes, yes, come along my dear, the jolly wrath of heaven can fall on them later, let's do something actually touristy now that we're here."

"Why waste an opportunity?" Merlin flashed a roguish smile at the Paladin as they walked through the city visiting any spot a curious foreigner would go to, from the smallest of shops, to the relatively large library, they checked the various sites and scouted the town for any undue influence, any _more _of it, that is.

By the end of their visit, both of the heroes were having worried thoughts about the city. A hive of vice and villainy territory, openly controlled by the hellspawn on the surface.

Once again Merlin cursed the Angels. It was their _job _to ensure such an event never happened, and not only had they failed but they hadn't even bothered to try and prevent the incursion. And yet, the views of the town irked the Archmage to no end, the town was so pathetically... _normal_?

As Merlin and Roland continued their watchful trip through Kuoh, they were growing warier by the second at the relatively high amount of demons present in the small town that slowly became easier to spot once Merlin had begun to seriously search for them. In Tokyo even though the Shinto and the Youkai had a vigilant eye, they did not seem to interact with the human population.

It was different here, Merlin thought as he tore the latest summoning flyer he had been handed, tossing it into the bin. The flyer had a minor compulsion spell to seem attractive, while also combined with a summoning spell.

Extremely innocuous, like all the other flyers he had taken care of, all things considered. And most certainly not the sort of stuff that could steal a person's soul.

More surprising was the lack of the Youkai in the town. The Youkai were absolutely absent from the town, the further Merlin's senses spread the more he found silent dread creep in his heart, he could only sense Fallen Angels and Demons in the town, with Humans who he was now almost certain, were under the influence of the Underworld, or worse, Kuoh was considered a part of the Underworld in effect.

Without a gesture or a word, Merlin's magic began to spread around him and Roland, reinforcing the ward that protected their true conversations. "Something is wrong," he said, his eyes looking around in faked fascination, "The town must be a demonic outpost, nay, by all means, it looks like a demonic _domain_. Though it certainly doesn't feel like it, Bael mentioned a lot more torture and a lot less vegetable selling."

Roland just nodded his hand was twitching slightly, eager to cut down the demons with Durandal for the last hour, "What I do not understand is why both the Heavenly hosts sit idle when the Demons take over an entire _town_ of innocents," he said, his mind was still affixed to the Nun the Messiah was intrigued by, "And why do they let a pious one enter this den of scavengers?" As a Paladin, he was anointed by the clergy, and he was raised as a faithful Catholic in Frankia.

The church was not invincible, nor was it infallible, but it did real tangible good to the world far more often than not, he would be the first to go against the corrupt members of the church, as he had many times under his Emperor.

His own experiences had only led him to be heavily biased against the demons even as he stayed his hand, he could kill them all but the Messiah had forbidden killing unless necessary, and unfortunately, it was still under control.

Until information about the factions was gathered, he had to calm both himself and his blade, he still remembered the devils from his mortal life, cunning and treacherous and yet oddly mischievous in this world, rather than outright malicious.

"You know why..." Merlin muttered, one hour of scouting in this town had already stoked his paranoia to the extent where he was casting wards of strength that would shock beings that were divine if they would be able to find the wards in the first place.

He had _not _thought, even in his wildest dreams that a small scouting mission in a tiny Japanese town would require such finesse but things were clearly not what they seemed to be like.

The lack of information played a big part in that, both his and Roland's memories of this world were limited but clear, the demons they had encountered were different and yet those who met them were still disdainful of Humanity, but that was a long time ago, time changes most things and thus it ran Merlin's paranoia wild to roam in a land filled with demons that, he had no way to judge their intent.

"You just don't like the reason," Merlin sighed, his eyes slightly downcast, "I don't like it either, besides I don't think the Nun is here with the assent of those in Heaven," No angel would send a nun to this town, well, no Angel would remain an Angel if they did so.

The Paladin just frowned, his disdain for the situation slipping into his eyes. Though he had nothing against the reformed Demons in the Messiah's service he loathed the ones that weren't under his lord's banner as they were usually the degenerate ones that stole souls, or at least that was what his memories told him, treachery had cost the first too much, if the Demons even dared to do it again they would find an early end to their combined existence.

He himself had no real memories of the Great War he knew well enough due not being alive for it but the more ancient Persona had memories of the great war, and how the Angels had only declined since the ceasefire.

How could the heavenly host make no sortie since the loss of God as their leader? It had been their complacency that had allowed the Demons and the Fallen to rise in power, how could they let the temptations of hell run wild in such an obscene manner?

For Peter's sake, he was also a target of an attempt to recruit him to one of their 'peerages' on his deathbed. Not that he agreed, he had sworn his sword to one lord in life, and he kept his word till he drew his last breath.

Roland pursed his lips and his sight once more rested on the Nun, peace coming back to his thoughts with practiced ease, nodding in agreement, "Tis true, the host would not allow for the nun to leave for such an unsafe town," His eyes roamed the sights but his attention was focused mostly at the nun they were subtly trailing, "At least the Nun is safe," Merlin's eye twitched. Those were forbidden words.

"You idiot," Merlin hissed, lamenting the fact his partner uttered the forbidden words, then narrowing his eyes as a black-haired girl tugging a brown-haired man, no a boy no older than sixteen summers, went past them his eyes flashed as he turned to the Paladin, "That was-" his pupils shined blue, promising pain and straining his disguise spell.

"A Fallen!" Roland roared, for once anger actually reared itself on the Paladin's face as his mask of indifference broke. His hand was already preparing to unleash the Durandal on the offending presence of the Fallen more specifically at his rage was imbued further by the clear corruption of youth not even in his prime before another hand rested on his sword arm, preventing him from drawing Durandal.

"Another Fallen approaches the nun," Merlin said, a dark undertone in his voice sending a chill down Roland's spine, harming children was an easy way to earn Merlin's wrath, to be fair the cord was there to be struck in most heroes. True to Merlin's word a blue-haired woman, very clearly not a human and definitely not an angel, approached the Nun and after a short word with her, the nun departed following the Fallen.

He released a deep breath, calming himself, his face settled in his mask as he nodded at Merlin, "This is unacceptable, we must act now before the children's lives are threatened!"

Merlin shook his head, in principle he agreed with the Paladin wishing to do nothing but let go of his careful control over his magic, but years of being in the court of many Pendragon kings had granted him a keen eye for deception, he could sense the corruption ran deeper than the surface they had seen, both the demons and the Fallen seemed to be unaware of each other's presence.

They needed to be cautious, the air stank of a conspiracy "We should split up, go and follow the nun _without_ an intervention," his own eyes were locked in the direction the brown-haired boy was tugged away to, "We are to observe as our Lord said, but it is for the best we avoid undue attention till the Messiah returns from Underworld."

He put his hand on the Paladin's armor, making a sizzling noise as rune appeared on the armor under his hand, "I'll call for you if I need your help," He said, a smile on his face, "If you require my attention then all you need to do is merely think of me while holding the rune. The illusion and the translation spell should hold unless you do something crazy, like unleashing the full might of Durandal," Merlin said, a bit pointedly at the man who had now withdrawn his hand from the hilt of Durandal.

Merlin snapped his fingers, summoning a small marble cross and casting another spell on it for an emergency war linked to him and the Messiah, "Give this to the nun, it'll call for the Messiah or me if she is in danger," His eyes were calm again, and he smiled lazily, "Don't worry, friend, I have a plan."

Roland's eyes were focused on Merlin's eyes, he could see his calm, yes, and he was in no uncertain terms anywhere near the level of Arthur when it came to interpreting the mage and yet even he could see the terrible promise under the calm. Underneath his kind smile and wise advice, the Archmagus of Camelot was capable of unleashing punishment that would make gods quiver.

And it was this promise he could see in Merlin's eyes, "Very well, my friend, I shall stay my hand, as long as I must," He waved his hand in goodbye as he left with the cross in his hand and a fire in his eyes. He would not let a hair on her head be harmed, even if his disguise had to be a sacrifice.

As he departed he couldn't help but hope that the Messiah wouldn't take too much time, there was much to do and quite a bit of history to find out. Knowing just what in Messiah's name were the factions doing in some small town far outside the realm of Christendom would be gratifying to start, "Well then, my dear Fallen. Let's have a conversation..." Merlin grinned as he dropped a solid illusion of him behind to maintain his appearance as a tourist and disappeared into thin air as he trailed the Fallen with an eerie blue flash in his eyes.

~o~o~o~o~o~

"_Oops_."

Hades's eyes flared up as he stared at the supposedly _dead_ leader of the rebellion against God.

"You should be dead. You _were_ dead!" The Greek God yelled heatedly.

"I got better," Helel chuckled at the twitching god, getting a short bark of laughter from Samael and Metatron to sigh, "We don't need to fight, Hades."

"You're _actually __**satan!**_ _Of course, we need to fight!_"

"You're _totally_ overreacting~," Helel said, stretching his sentence, "_Honestly, you do one rebellion and it's like you're some sort of pariah._"

Hades released a deep breath, "My apologies it seems I was unclear about something."

He pointed at himself, "_I_ am a decent god who despises the Fallen."

Pointing at Helel his flames rose again, "**You. Are. Literally. Satan."**

Helel opened his mouth again but was stopped by a hand tugging his wing.

"Stop antagonizing the god," The blue-haired man who looked more akin to a child next to the angel, and yet the twelve winged Seraphim, in all likelihood the strongest of the Angels bowed his head in deference near instantaneously.

"My apologies, my lord," The angel truly did look apologetic, and Minato sighed before rubbing his wing.

"It's fine, but don't start a fight. It's too _troublesome_," Hearing that the Angel chuckled,

"Metatron, explain."

"**If I may, Hades, what my brother meant to say was that he and I have both been given an opportunity to correct the wrongs that were committed in the past. We thank you for your aid in getting our siblings back but we're urgently needed somewhere else at the moment."**

"You can redeem yourself?" The god asked before shaking his head, "You can't leave just yet, I have quite a few questions to ask, especially _you, lucy_. You too, human."

"_Yeah screw you too,_" Helel murmured under his breath before raising an eye confrontationally at the god.

"Unless you've forgotten, you're facing _four _Seraphs," With a small snort of disdain the angel finally got up and abandoned all hints of mischief, "Know this, _god_, I alone am enough to raze this place to the ground."

Hades stiffened as Helel raised an eyebrow and continued with a lazy grin, "I know you must be thinking a great many thoughts, that I would be _weaker_ than I once was. The thing you should know, the thing you forgot to think about in your hurry to condemn me."

Helel finally unleashed his true power, letting the waves of light slam into the walls and created cracks on the floor by his mere presence, "**Thrice I have fought God, Thrice I have held him to a standstill. You presume to order the Messiah,**" Turning his overbearing pressure fully at the god and snuffed his fire out. Forcefully.

Hades grunted, ignoring the sheer pain ravaging his body at being forcibly attacked right at the source of his soul, "**You overreach!"**

"Stop."

The Spears of light that had been growing suddenly popped, the angry

Helel instantly stopped, stepping behind the boy, _Messiah_, Hades registered through the pain, seeing the Messiah walked up to him, Hades tried to stand but his legs had already given way to the ground, "_I see_," Hades laughed sardonically.

The Messiah's hair had turned fully white, a white crown alongside his clothes changing into a pure white plate, with a soft sigh he poked Hades' cheek, "How _troublesome_."

Hades would have said something but within an instant his wounds vanished, the feeling of tiredness was replaced with strength and new vigor filled him, "You're the Messiah?"

The Messiah looked around, first at Zeus who had been stony through the incident, then at the four angels looking at him, well. Three of them, the fourth was still dreaming.

"So I'm told," He murmured with a wry smile on his face.

Hades nodded before looking at Zeus, "You're meant to be taking my side, brother, I understand why-"

"I'm a projection, dear brother, a part of the Messiah's soul materialized into the material world."

Hades looked at him, then at the Messiah who had yet to abandon his new form, still radiating power comparable to God and he chose to walk over to his throne, and then slumped down.

"If it's not too much of a bother, we should still have a word, Messiah," His gaze lingered at Helel before he steeled himself and uttered the words he didn't want to, "My apologies, it seems I acted rashly, and in bad faith."

Helel shrugged, "I stopped caring about what everyone said a long time ago, say what you wish about me," His eyes then narrowed, "**But leave the Messiah out of it**."

The white-haired Messiah stepped forward again, and nodded at the god, "Zeus will debrief you, whilst I would love to talk with you I have an urgent situation that needs to be dealt with."

With his piece said a swirling portal opened in front of him, moans of pain leaking through and he walked through, followed by the four seraphs closely. Leaving Zeus and Hades to engage in a lengthy conversation about the truths of the world and just how a new Messiah had risen without knowledge of anyone.

~O~

As the Messiah headed to the depths of hell Merlin continued following the brown-haired youth under a spell of invisibility, he had a solid illusion go around and rent a house as their base of operations in the meantime.

Looking at the 'couple' he wondered why he had to be the one following two teenagers -well one teenager and one sadist- on a date, it made him feel like that damned pervert! A shiver ran down his spine, bloody pervert giving him chills even after he was long gone.

Unfortunately, his sense of duty eventually prevailed against the will to just set up and intent ward and abandon his post.

Thus that was how he had begun following the 'couple' from shop to shop, noticing her scarcely hidden distaste and weakly hidden power it was shocking none of the demons had acted out, it was hard to not sense the Fallen.

Then again, perhaps they were just weaklings, the demons around him did not show the sort of power a demon was supposed to have, especially for ones apparently on guard duty.

And he could only sigh in disappointment as the boy let his lust agree to the girl leading him to a secluded park, do Humans really have some intrinsic want to die in _every_ universe? How was this not suspicious? He counted nineteen sneers and no lesser than nine instances barely disguised sarcasm!

Stepping closer without taking cover, he really wasn't bothering to hide behind a bush, though to be honest the thought that he, as a fully grown adult, could _ever _hide behind a bush and he was the archwizard of Camelot!

He refused to suffer the shame of hiding behind a bush like an amateur. He had magic and he was proud of it! So he summoned a chair within his invisibility charm and took a seat right in front of the Fallen and the youth, he looked into the distance for a moment, "This feels like I'm a voyeur."

His eye twitched before he resumed staring at the couple, "_The things I do due to duty._"

"Would you do something for me Issei?" The Fallen whispered into the boy's ear, Merlin shook his head as the boy, his name revealed to be Issei, nodded fervently totally falling for the simpering fool of the Angel.

The Fallen got up, turning around with a twisted smile on her face, "Would you die for me?" The Fallen smirked at the frozen expression on Issei's face as he fell off the bench.

"Yuu-ma what did you say?" His hesitant question was only answered by the two black wings that came out of her shoulders and the sadistic smile on her face.

"I said" She whispered, a spear of light taking shape in her hands, "Would you die for me?" She smiled, the smile most definitely looking ugly despite her apparent beauty as she launched the spear at Issei, at the same time Merlin started laughing, not noticing the spell fading.

Merlin's invisibility spell broke as he continued roaring with laughter, the Spear was blocked by Merlin's bright blue shield as he stood up dismissing the chair and enlarging his spell covering the area, he continued laughing before wiping some tears as he looked at the BDSM Angel. And promptly broke out into laughter again. "O-OH LOR-D you're actually serious, _Oh ISSEI WOULD YOU DIE FOR MEE~"_

Issei stared at the back of the man who saved him, still in shock from his near-death experience.

"What are you doing here wizard?" The Fallen asked, looking at the blue barrier with worry in her eyes it was easy to see the disparity of strength. Originally she had expected the wizard to be weaker than her, it was only after a moment of clear thought she recognized the effortless magic for the show of strength it was.

Now escape was the only thought on her mind, if only to tell her beloved Kobakiel about a new participant in his plans, a _human _participant,

Merlin snorted again, "I've seen mewling kittens that have been more threatening than you," Was it a lie by omission that they were Nemean cubs? Probably. Did he care if a would-be murderer BDSM Angel was angry at him? Probably not.

In a second Merlin's face changed from amused to serious, his eyes swirling blue as he stared at the Fallen.

"I don't like murderers, but that's okay, really is, because you're not one," With a snap of his fingers chains of magic surrounded her, "But we humans have a special place in our hearts for those who harm children."

The chains started heating up now, slowly making red welts on her skin.

"For unlike Michael I have no mercy to those who harm the innocent so wantonly," His chains swiped again, and this time Yuuma wasn't able to dodge, shellshocked by the familial reference to the current leader of Heaven, the chains as they wrapped around her pulling her to the ground.

"Tell me, what is your name Fallen?" Merlin was also keeping an eye on the boy who had scrambled back till he hit the edge of the field wall he had put up, "There is no point resisting me, you'll find I have learned very well from my past. Monsters like you get no mercy from me" The chains tightened momentarily causing Yuuma to gasp in pain, the smell of burning flesh hung in the air as Issei's mouth opened in horror.

"I'll speak!" The chains finally loosened marginally and the sound of sizzling skin faded away, "I am Raynare of the Grigori," She flinched as Merlin gained an enlightened glint in his eyes, the Fallen -as they knew due to the first one they met in Italy- were in two groups.

There were those who used Azazel's Grigori to hide under the veneer of false benevolence and those who had gone out on their own way, usually, he would kill the Fallen, well, not really due to his orders he'd have just imprisoned her until the Messiah came back, unfortunately now a more intelligent capture was a more preferred outcome.

"Well speak then, I don't have all day," Merlin huffed in annoyance summoning two chairs, "Sit down lad" his eyes softened a little, "It must be a hard day for you, it's not every day you get nearly murdered by the Fallen," Issei looked at the chair before nodding dumbly and taking his seat.

"As I was saying we were sent here on behalf of the Grigori to watch over the devils and make sure they're not breaching the peace and attacking the humans!" It was a weak lie, to anyone who knew anything about the current status of the three factions would automatically know it was a lie, but Merlin didn't know anything about the three factions after the great war, but he was Merlin the strongest wizard and his years at the royal court had made him proficient at reading people.

Yet he ignored her, those same years of intrigue had also taught him a lesson about gathering information, she would be his spy within her group and everything would be clear soon enough anyway, mostly due to her generous help.

'Grigori, the watchers…' Merlin pointed towards Issei, "And you were trying to kill a human while protecting him from demons? Why with protectors like you there'd be no need for the demons to attack" he said dryly, he was mentally already digging as much as he could before she could find out about him messing with her mind.

Raynare tensed before committing to another lie, though this one was far closer to the truth, "He wields a sacred gear a gift by _him _I was irrational in my hatred of him, I beg for clemency, it will not occur again."

"Oh, Sacred Gears? Tell me more about these sacred gears, my dear Fallen, it seems you'll live after all," he said, before the chains suddenly tightened, "And try to lie less, I haven't got all of eternity to interrogate a low ranking Fallen," she gasped before nodding frantically at his cross voice at her frivolous lies, he had no time for them, not when a topic that seemed this important was to be discussed.

As Raynare begun to speak hope sparking within her Issei interrupted her again, his fear of her being released rising above his shock of the situation, "She tried to kill me, you can't let her go!"

Merlin looked at the boy, before nodding in affirmation, "She tried and she failed, trust me boy I won't let the Fallen or the Demon slaughter the innocent of this town, you have my word," he was serious, already he was preparing plans to neuter anyone with hostile intent towards humans, or mortals.

Issei huffed, "You can't forgive her just because she has a good bust!"

Raynare looked at the boy with disbelief in her eyes whilst Merlin just looked at him wondering if he should talk some sense into him before ignoring the boy's outburst and asking a more important question, "You're not shocked about wizards, fallen angels, and demons?"

Issei nodded slowly, "If there are bad guys like them then there have to be good guys like you, right?"

Merlin just shook his head, had the Messiah not played intervention he'd be dead and the nun would be in a position only God knows, but then again it was the job description of the Messiah to turn the tides in favor of Humanity. Well not exactly, but he digressed, "Tis true, continue your tale Grigori, do not tempt me to send your remains to Azazel"

His barb finally got Raynare to focus back on their conversation, as she began her lies, or at least truth for this topic, once more, "Sacred Gears" She pursed her lips, "They are weapons made by _father _given to humanity, not that they control any, the devils control the highest amount then the Church" _followed by the Grigori_ remained an unspoken though picked up by Merlin.

Merlin nodded, loosening his chains further, "Explain better will you?" Inside a torrent of emotions woke up clashing with each other, the demons controlled weapons forged by god, that was not good news, not at all. He didn't know of a single Persona that would like such news, Bael would sneer in disgust for using weapons forged by the enemy of hell and the usually composed Metatron would rage in fury at demons usurping his father's will. The Messiah himself, much like himself, would be worried why weapons meant to protect humanity from the supernatural were not in the possession of humanity in the first place.

He looked at the brown-haired boy -Issei- and secretly let a magical tether port out the demonic flier that was with him into his possession, and behind the bush, discarded. The Demons would not get their hands on a child whilst he was present. "You should leave now," He said, standing up and opening his barrier partially, "Your family must be worried for your safety child."

He saw Issei give a hesitant glance at Raynare, "It's okay Issei, I won't let any harm come to you or your family," he promised, a charm to calm him laced in his voice.

Issei tried to protest, "But what about-"

Merlin cut him off, "Just don't tell anyone about this," He said, adding a weak compulsion spell to keep the supernatural secret on Issei, "I'll talk to you later, you've been given a responsibility and I won't abandon you to face it without training."

Issei looked uncertain but still left, slightly urged by his weak compulsion charm and calmed by the previous spell, him with his mind conflicted, thinking about the mage and the supernatural and his usual perverse thoughts, never noticing his flier no longer being in his pocket due to the chaos surrounding his thoughts as he left.

Merlin watched the boy leaving and then closed his barrier again, a spellbound page already rising with a pen writing furiously. His eyes centered on the Fallen Angel, a grin gracing his face causing her to flinch, "Now then my dear Fallen, let's have a chat eh?" Unfortunately for her, out of the two of them only he knew he wouldn't actually kill her.

Fortunately for her at that very moment, a loud roar echoed across the town with a blast of light that could rival the strongest angels, by the time Merlin had hidden it he was sure the devils near the church knew, "_Damnit Roland," _Merlin hissed under his breath before looking at the wide-eyed angel.

"Guess it's your lucky day, you get to see an angry paladin beat the living snot out of your brats."

~O~

Usually, it would be tremendously hard for a warrior to do a job befitting a rogue, or someone not as bulky as him.

Thankfully Roland was a fully trained Paladin, the wielder of the peerless blade. As Merlin had chased after his charge Roland had made sure to follow the nun, as discreetly as he could thankfully Merlin's spell went a long way in helping him stay hidden.

Sneaking about was easy and though he was not a wizard and couldn't just barge in without ruining the purpose of his mission.

It was par for the course that infiltration was one of the many skills he picked up in his life as a Paladin of Charlemagne

Swiftly following them, his feet barely evoking any noise Roland followed the Fallen and the nun far better than any man of his size had a right to, his mind solely focused on his task and so he followed his trained eyes making easy progress, as the nun and the Fallen went into a church, an abandoned one with most of its heraldry vandalized in the foulest way. Despite ignoring the act of heresy the Paladin's hold tightened around Durandal, as he walked through the hallowed halls of the church with quiet steps and remaining in the shadows to stay out of sight of the various exorcists before he finally found the nun again, conversing with the Fallen, silently he thanked Merlin's spell for saving him from certain discovery.

"Why does the church need me here? It was a pleasant surprise they took me back but why all the way in Japan?" Roland's eyes shot up, the church? The church would never want her with the Fallen! He almost drew Durandal right there, anger almost boiling over. First, they desecrate his faith, then they entrap the innocent and now they coerce an innocent into their schemes. It was clear the Fallen had not changed at all since the time he had lived, he forced his hand to leave Durandal's hilt, letting deep breaths leave his lungs as he calmed himself before he revealed himself due to his wroth at the Fallen.

"We need you to heal our exorcists as we protect the humans from corruption, the Devils have quite a hold on the territory here, it is hard to heal the faithful especially as we work to eliminate the evil influence on humans here," the blue-haired Fallen said, quickly waving her concerns away and soon she was off leaving the nun to her own devices, clearly not believing the nun was capable of escaping on her own.

She left and Asia's tears began spilling, sobs shaking her shoulders. Roland paused, the sobs irked him, something deep inside of him was intensely disappointed by those desperate sobs.

Roland opened the door, walking up to her, watching her scramble to her feet and wipe her face furiously, "I-Who are you?"

"You know, don't you?"

She gulped, "I don't know what you're talking about," She nervously glanced at the walls before mouthing stop to him.

"This hive of villainy. Filled with Fallen and Heretics," He barred the door and took her hand in his hands, cupping them gently, "You do not deserve this."

"B-But I-c," Hiccupping Asia let out another sob as she hugged him, "I'm not strong enough."

Roland stared at her, sobbing into his plate, he patted her head before smiling, "Do you know who I am?"

"I'm Roland, the original wielder of Durandal," Looking at her look his smile turned brighter, he slid his sword out of its sheath, it looked innocent enough but the blade radiated an aura that had practically oozed holy energy.

"_Truly?_" Asia wanted to deny him, snap out of her dream about the strongest Paladin coming to save her, but within her she still held hope. Clutching the white feather hanging from her neck.

The door broke open, exorcists and a Fallen rushing in, Roland smiled wryly, before winking at her, "You're stronger than you think you are. Trust me."

The Fallen tensed, the exorcists looked at his sword with unparalleled fear, the Paladin grinned at their expressions.

"**Unleash yourself, DURANDAL!" **

Then the world turned white.

~O~

Stepping out of the portal the Messiah could only sigh as he looked at the scene in front of him.

Merlin had erected two barriers around the old church and was standing in front of Asia, who'd been holding onto his shoulders tightly as she stared at the carnage in front of her, he'd made sure to hide the upcoming carnage from her, it was the least he could do.

To be honest, the Messiah knew it was risky to send Roland on the mission, the man knew _how _to be stealthy but he had little patience for the unjust, even lesser for those like the Fallen.

It showed the Paladin threw Durandal at the offending angel in question, as soon as she dodged his blade returned to his hand and he speared her to the ground with the peerless blade.

Two exorcists were brave enough to approach but he caught one of their blades in his hand and blocked the other's gun with his armored hand, smiling as the gunshot into his hand to no effect, raising a brow the usually cheery Paladin sneered at the exorcists, "**Is that all?"**

Not giving them a moment of respite the Paladin ripped the sword out of the exorcist's hand and speared it through the Fallen's stomach, calling Durandal back to his hand, turning around he snatched the gun out of the other one's hand and throwing it at a third one trying to run away, snapping the man's spine with a well-placed throw.

His other hand locked onto the exorcist's head, throwing him at a Fallen trying to fly away from the venue like a bullet, forcing both to crash on to the broken ground.

As he finally turned his sight on the remaining fallen and her cohort of exorcists he quirked an eyebrow, smiling at them despite blood covering most of his formerly pristine armor, "**Are you afraid?**"

He was fast, fast enough that only a blur was seen as he appeared behind an exorcist, with his hand through the exorcist's chest, "**I'm sure your victims were also afraid**."

None of them could let off the smallest of noises in front of his glare, "**But don't worry." **

With a blur of speed, he sprung up behind the tiny fallen, and speared two exorcists to the ground with their own blades before lifting the fallen by her neck, and leaning near her ear, "**I'm just getting started."**

And then he slammed her on the other fallen, impaling her on the same sword her comrade had been impaled on, and then again. And _again. _Before disappearing in a burst of speed, and landing on the former librarian of heaven.

Pulling at the two-winged angel by his wing he used him like a whip, slamming the running exorcists with the fallen angel, and using him to tank any bullets or blades coming his way before he finally swung the fallen around and tossed him at the cross he had… vandalized… which was followed by four more swords that impaled the fallen to the cross.

Sparking another short burst of speed the Paladin appeared in the front of the sixteen exorcists trying to run, the last of the forty that had survived his onslaught.

Running at them at a far more human speed he dodged the first swing directed at him and redirected it to the neck of an exorcist with his own _swords _removed both arms of the exorcist, as he was then kicked into the third one.

A bullet slammed into his head, the force not even bothering him before he cocked his head with an inquisitive look directed at the gunman.

"_Mercy_."

Roland stepped forward, taking his gun away from him and throwing it through the exorcist's head, and the man behind him, before looking dispassionately at the remaining exorcists.

"**I give you the same mercy you gave unto the innocent.**"

Another exorcist fell, his head cracked open with an overpowered punch.

"_Noo-fplea-_" And another fell with his legs slashed off and neck snapped.

"**And where was this mercy," **Roland said with his boot ending the life of another exorcist as he severed his head from his body.

With a flash Durandal had ended the lives of three more exorcists, their bodies sliced in half in a manner that should have been impossible by any modern means.

His fists lashed out and reduced two more exorcists into smears as he slammed them against each other with the entirety of his strength.

One of the exorcists looking at him raised his hand shakingly, with wide eyes and an open mouth, his own gun was slammed down his throat. And through his body.

The last exorcist died as the Paladin impaled him upon the same cross they had violated, and the battle ended with a roar.

"**When you raped and murdered in the name of the Lord!" **

"Ah," Minato said, taking in the carnage unleashed by the paladin. The Angels following him had muted reactions, with war being an accepted reality by all of them.

Minato turned his gaze from the silent Paladin who was walking back from the remains of the church towards him with his head downcast, looking somber at his battle frenzy.

Merlin meanwhilst moved forward and waved his hand to clear the field, and quickly buried the bodies, with blank headstones, looking at their graves he could only sigh.

"May you find peace in your next life," He said somberly.

"_Mister wizard_," Asia asked in a small voice, still shaking slightly from the sudden deaths of so many people in front of her, "_Why did you-?_" She cut herself off, looking a little n

The Archmage stood still for a moment, before answering, "I have lived a long life, and yet it always disappoints me when I see these sort of people."

"Most of them started off as defenders of humanity, and somewhere along the line they broke. Maybe they lost faith, became disillusioned with humanity, lord knows the balance of power rests heavily against humans. Maybe they saw something so horrible, so twisted their mind shattered. And just like that all that potential for good, for _**change**_ is gone forever," Merlin spoke somberly, clearly remembering something from his own time.

"Above all, these people represent our failure. As heroes, we are meant to inspire, to stoke the flame of hope, to kindle the flame of humanity in the harshest storms. When soldiers of humanity defect to cause such pain and suffering…it is our failure more than theirs."

Asia was staring at Merlin's hunched shoulders, it was odd to see the young man seemingly age a hundred years in front of her eyes, his eyes reflected a lot of hidden pain, masked behind a jovial face that shouldered the weight of the world with a smile on his face.

"You still try." A softer voice said from behind them, as Asia swiveled around, her eyes widening at the same man she met in Italy, followed by four angels, something that made her eyes go wide, Roland was further behind with his head still down.

"Sometimes that's all that matters," Minato said, "To continue trying regardless of the odds."

Within a second Merlin's switch seemed to have flipped, a jovial smile on his face as he squared his shoulders, "As you say, sire, to try against the odds! For a better future," He boisterously proclaimed, getting a smile out of Minato, who nodded before turning to Asia with a serious look.

The angels had split up at this point, with the metallic one and his roguish looking brother tending to the fallen, chaining them with shackled made of his light. The one with a hue of red in his eyes continued standing behind Minato stoically with his sister in his arms.

"Do you have somewhere safe to stay?"

Asia didn't reply still looking at the four Seraphs briefly stopping her gaze on the one carrying his sister. He flashed her a brief smile, causing her to blush, but was finally shook out of her awe by Minato, who poked her shoulder and repeated his question.

Looking at the ruined church she nervously rubbed the back of her head, "I...don't."

Minato nodded, "You can stay with us for the time being," he sighed at looking at her teary eyes, "You're not a drain, Asia."

"_How did you know_?" She asked with a surprised yelp.

"I have a knack for understanding humans," He said, raising an eye at the snort from Helel who was leading the three captured fallen, "Are you done?"

"**They were alive, barely, despite Roland's attempt, and their powers are sealed," **Metatron was one to reply, his voice rumbling through the ruined church.

Roland winced at the reminder of his failure to carry out the simple order, battle frenzy may have served him well when he had to cover his former lord's retreat, but it became the reason he failed.

Minao fixed his eyes on the Paladin for a while, before sighing, "It's alright Roland, It was my fault for sending you to scout a town filled with your historical enemies, take some solace, at the least, all of them had committed offenses worthy of their fate."

Roland mulled over the words before nodding gratefully at his lord, "I shall not fail you again, my lord!"

"Yes, yes, now that we've all had a good cry together I suggest you move on and get some rest before discussing our finds for the day," Merlin said with a smile, trying to ease the air, as he opened a portal to their house, "On you go, I'll come with our lord once I'm done fixing the place, and removing any residual energy from Durandal."

One by one, everyone entered, with Asia and Helel being the last ones to enter as the angel was enthusiastically telling her of the time Metatron crashed into the moon.

"Why lie, sire?" Merlin asked the Messiah, "More than a few were merely small-time offenders, easily reformable."

Minato just looked ahead after getting one last gaze at the gravestones, "Just one more burden to shoulder," He shrugged, "I'd rather carry it than hoik it onto his shoulders."

Merlin was silent for a while looking at the Messiah's back as he entered the portal, before sighing, and moving forward to follow him, not before murmuring one last thing sorrowfully, "When will you learn, my lord, not all burdens should be borne by a single man."

~O~

Soon after they had finally got to the house Merlin had acquired for them, Metatron had been sent back to the sea of souls with Helel sticking around with Samael, Roland and Azrael joining them at the dining table, with Asia resting for the night.

Minato looked imploringly at Merlin, telling him to start the talks, who gave an exaggerated sigh at their sitting arrangements, "Delegated from the Round table to the dining table," he said, his tone overly dramatic, winking at the Messiah earning a small laugh from Azrael.

"It is crucial that we share information that we have learned," Minato said, before frowning as he looked at the clock, "Let's finish this briefly."

Merlin nodded, and firmed his posture, abandoning his jovial attitude for the moment, and produced a notebook from his pocket, "From what I've observed, the demons control this town with the heirs of Gremory as Sitri controlling the town," His face twisting into an odd frown, "with them running a _school _of all things"

Minato's nose wrinkled in distaste as Bael's usual mocking filled his ears to inform him who exactly were these two clans, "Both the seducer clans in the Human world?"

Merlin nodded, "And running a school, furthermore, it _seems_ as if they had intended to let a human wielding a sacred gear die so that they'd be able to recruit him into their peerage."

This did encounter outcries as Samael and Azrael both detested the death of innocents and devils in general due to them only having memories of the devils from the war.

"Now, now, whilst it _looks_ suspect, it might actually be a coincidence," Merlin said calmly, "It would be rash to jump to conclusions."

"But it's a devil?" Samael questioned with a frown.

Merlin raised an eye at him, "You _do_ know I'm half demon, right?"

Samael scoffed, "We all know you're the glaring exception due to your mother's sacrifice-" Seeing Merlin's eyes he paused, lowering his eyes, "I'm sorry, I spoke out of turn.."

Merlin glared at him for a moment, before looking at the impatient Messiah and sighing, "Yes, you did."

"Moving on from our prejudice about things we don't know, I captured a fallen that tried to murder one of these sacred gear wielders, she's stored safely in the prison in our basement-" Ignoring questions of how the house could have a prison in the basement, the mage continued unabashedly with a small smirk, "And I've sent their three comrades to the same place."

Minato raised his eye at the mention of the fallen looking at the mage and urging him to continue, Merlin shrugged, "Their powers are already bound by Metatron, we'll think about what to do with them in the morning," He paused briefly to make sure everyone was keeping up before railroading on, "I've also found summoning posters the demons wave around to gain power through contracts, though after I summoned one."

Noticing the looks of alarmed incredulity he rolled his eyes, "Yes I did make sure to cloak everything properly,_ I'm not a fool_, as I was saying they do rather mundane tasks and take mundane payment instead of souls, I even offered my own and the demon -sorry- devil laughed and shrugged it off."

Waiting for that to sink in, Merlin nodded at the astounded angels, "It is truly shocking they have actually changed but I'd still ask you to dwell cautiously, Messiah, the change might as well revert should they know who it is they're dealing with."

Minato motioned for Helel to start their side of the story, "We found two twelve winged angels and that Hades is a real swell person for those who don't have bat wings or are flying cows, I might have scared him though~" He stopped as Merlin flicked his head, "About the demons Helel, about the demons." Merlin said with a wry smile.

"No~No, tell me just what you did to scare the God of the dead?" Asked a curious Azrael.

"Are you sure it's that you want to know of? I was just about to get to Persephone?" Helel asked with a smirk letting his wings turn slightly dark as he squiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Loathe I say it, stay on the topic before you revert to -as you eloquently put it- a flying cow," Merin said, shaking his head at Helel's antics.

Helel smiled impishly, "Well all the demons died," the silence was deafening, before a resounding crack as the table broke in two from Samael pounding his hand on it.

"Explain brother!" Samael asked loudly, ignoring the mumble from the Messiah about troublesome angels.

A blue hue enveloped the table and repaired it, leaving no mark, as Merlin sighed, "Explain, please, preferably before causing more damage to our house."

"So apparently, by the end of the great war only watered down descendants like the modern devil continue to live on, whilst not so bad when compared to demons, in fact, they're positively _angelic_ compared to their ancestors," He made a slightly disgusted face, his demonic form was something he himself had grown distant from during their stay in the seal, "They are still abhorrent by any decent moral standard, Hades told us plenty about the peerage system and I just have one question, if you are employed under a certain contract and not told the full extent of it and then told should you desire to not follow _an _order you are liable for execution or horrid mutation, is it not slavery? To be tricked into a contract that says follow the orders or be executed or mutated."

"Very Troubling," Minato agreed, before turning to Merlin, "Consult with others if you must, but I need you to come up with a way to turn willing devils back to their former state."

Merlin's eyes glittered with promise, and pain if any the implied consequences actually took place, "I shall not fail you, my lord, but I must request leave to return to Albion, there are certain relics there that may allow me to make the process of turning reincarnated devils back to their own race," He paused, before continuing with a more hopeful tone, "I have...friends as well, those who might still live and offer us aid."

Minato's eyes softened as he looked at Merlin, he understood why Merlin wished to go to Britain so eagerly, the creation of a united Albion was a constant dream Merlin and Arthur pined for, and the mere threat of their people to once more be enslaved would certainly have earned such a reaction, "Leave after the current situation is dealt with, I'll send Arthur with you, he would want to see what his progeny has been up to.."

Merlin nodded, "Then I'll be off, my lord, I'll check the wards around Camelot, and start my project. Though I suspect I might need these 'evil pieces' to truly make progress."

Roland was next to get up, "Messiah, I request permission to go to the sea of souls and deliberate on my failure today."

"Don't dwell on it for too long, learn from it and move on," Minato said, and with a slight direction of his thoughts, Roland vanished back to the sea of souls.

He brought Metatron back to the front of his mind, He smiled at the Angels, "I will be going to bed, however, you all can converse with Metatron and Helel, **Persona.**"

His metallic wings as radiant as ever, face once more stoic, authority leaked out of him and his holy aura though concealed still managed to leak out a little, not even he could conceal his light, no doubt they would be found if not for the wards on the house, he was, after all, another former lord of the sixth level of heaven.

Minato yawned, "I'll leave you four to catch up," he said, as he left for his own room. Much had been done but immense tasks still remained to be done tomorrow.

Metatron looked at his siblings, for the first time having the chance to converse properly with them, he pulled out a chair for himself, nodding at his siblings, "**Come let us Convene brothers and sister, it has been too long since I have been stuck with Helel and his mug,**" Metatron said, a smile on his face even as Helel pouted while the jaws of Samael and Azrael dropped.

"D-Did you just joke brother?" Samael asked, forgetting his irrational apprehension of the voice of God in favor of gaping at the humor that the angel had apparently developed after his disappearance.

Helel snorted, "I object to that, I can say without falling my mug is a divine artifact of beauty," grinning toothily he pointed to his white wings, "Angels do not lie."

By now Samael had overcome his shock and the prankster in him somehow slipped through letting out a gale of laughter overshadowing Azrael's softer laughter at their brother's antics, it reminded them of the good days, when Father still stood like a towering titan they frolicked around the cosmos united under the silver banner.

Helel sighed sadly before poking Azrael's nose, "Cherish the past, sister, but do not allow it to consume your present."

Azrael wiped her eyes, "I know, my divine artifact of beauty," A smiled on her face as she ended with fake snideness in her voice.

Helel clutched his heart dramatically, "Betrayed by my little sister! Woe is me!"

The future may have held many things for the four angels, but that night they truly enjoyed themselves like days long past.

~o~o~o~o~o~

"Messiah, wake up Messiah," Minato opened his sleepy eyes, wiping them reflexively as he looked at Merlin, his eyes screaming murder at the wizard for waking him up so early in the day after their late night.

Merlin gulped before smiling with forced cheer, "You're late for school Messiah!"

Minato's eyes shot open, "**What**?"

Merlin smiled sheepishly, "Well, you see I thought it best that to truly determine a way to scout the school and demons in it," He said with a helpless shrug, "Not just that, but to protect the humans in that school and to look over the boy destined to be a hero."

"Though I watch over him through magic, I _did_ promise either I or someone else would talk to him, to clear up the new surroundings he has found himself in, and if possible, offer him training to be a hero."

Minato groaned, he thought he didn't need further schooling after fighting off the apocalypse and having literal wise men in his soul, but it seemed like Merlin had a different ideal, he stood up and looked at Merlin, conveying his will through a glare alone, "You just want me to suffer for not letting you have the flashy entrance."

Merlin winked and with a snap of fingers Minato was dressed in a black blazer with white accents over a white, long-sleeved button-down shirt with vertical linings, a black ribbon on the collar, matching black pants, and brown dress shoes, "Why can't someone else go, maybe Galahad or Arthur?"

Merlin gave a blinding smile, "Oh you'll have company, my lord, loathe as I admit it, it would be remiss to not take any protection for the students if you battle in the school. To that extent, Roland will join you alongside Perseus."

"...do I have to?" He asked with silent resignation, seeing the look in Merlin's eyes he sighed, "Is it even wise to go with Roland after his volatile reaction?"

Merlin shook his head, "Ideally we would not do such a thing, but Perseus has the strength to stop him, so it stands to reason we use this situation as a learning lesson."

Minato nodded at the wizard before calling the two Persona to the forefront of his mind, and closing his eyes, and evoking, "**Persona."**

Roland stood firm, his armor replaced with the same uniform he wore, it was the other person who was also looking at Merlin that was a new addition to their entourage, "I swear no harm shall come to thy body till I exist Messiah!"

Whilst Roland was bombastic, Perseus was a more sober personality, he didn't announce his presence bombastically, though his calm smile was reassuring and his blue eyes looked like they were shining.

"I stand ready to serve, my liege."

Minato just nodded and walked downstairs to grab breakfast, before going to _school_. He sighed, sometimes he wondered if Merlin was the part of his soul that thrived on trolling him. Roland and Perseus, on the other hand, chose to stay back and familiarise each other with their tactics before following him.

Merlin headed back to his room to continue his research after giving them a quick and cheeky good luck to Minato and reminding them to carry their stationary.

As Minato entered the dining room he was impressed by the array of food on the table, with Azrael setting the last plate down, "You can cook?"

Azrael blushed in embarrassment, "No Messiah, whilst basic cooking is within my reach it was Samael and Helel that made this meal."

Metatron nodded in empathy, "**I too feel inferior to Helel sometimes sister,**" Metatron lamented, he was jesting. In part.

Azrael looked at him, so did Minato who was beginning his meal already abandoning the dream of arriving on time, "And how do you feel better?"

Metatron smirked, "**By remembering he crashed into Mars instead of landing on the Moon whilst we were racing.**"

Helel clicked his tongue, as Samael looked at him as if actually having trouble imagining the same Morning Star who could have fought Father, albeit whilst he was weakened, somehow miss the Moon?!

Minato too looked at him and Helel only rolled his eyes before saying one thing, "Mistakes were made."

He huffed in the ensuing laughter, enduring the chuckling that accompanied the byplay between Metatron and Helel, as even Minato cracked a smile at the former Fallen angel.

~O~

Minato, Perseus, and Roland stared back at the student council president of the school, both had encountered a large lack of orgies according to Bael, and had been thankful for the seemingly restrained devils.

Then again she was glaring at them for being late, "You are late on our first day Minato-san."

Minato only nodded in agreement, "We apologize president." He said nonchalantly, letting the matter drop no need to fight them at the moment, his judgment was to be based on their behavior, not his perception of their kin.

Sona was tempted to deny their applications but considering the rather nice man that had enrolled them (if only she knew it was Merlin) she decided to give them a pass for this once, "Be on time next time Roland-san, Minato-san, Percy-San," Her eyes narrowed at the backs of the hidden heroes, suspicious about the foreigners showing up just after the display of fireworks on the derelict church.

As the first bell rang and understanding dawned on the Messiah about him needing to wake up early, his regrets were born anew,

**~fin~**

**Betaed by Chris4th.**

**A little late, but time is an unfortunately scarce resource for me at the moment, I'll try to continue updates regularly though.**


	3. Chapter Two

**A month isn't that bad right? It's exam season, after all. Regardless, enjoy this beefy chapter! Many things have changed, and this is where the butterflies start a hurricane compared to the previous story!**

**~O~**

Soon after being confronted by the school president the trio of heroes were led to the class by the Sitri, with Perseus politely making small talk with the devil and the Messiah keeping track of Roland's wandering eyes and the outrage of the demons inside the Sea of Souls.

Roland was walking with an easy smile on his face, but anyone with a basic understanding of how to read people could easily tell the stiffness in his posture, more than once his hand had itched towards his belt buckle, reaching for a sword that wasn't present.

The Messiah, meanwhile, was more invested in ensuring Bael didn't lose his temper.

'**Unbelievable!**' Bael roared from the sea of souls, or at least stop him from losing it more than he already had.

A minor scan of the people of the school had already revealed a descendent of his, something that would usually please the demon, had the descendent not been pathetically weak compared to one of the most powerful Demons.

**'This is a disgrace! How can one of my descendants be so weak?! My blood runs through her veins! The blood of Bael! An Archdemon of Hell! I've had Legionnaires stronger than her! She is meant to be a representation of the pillar's strength! Not a sign of the pathetic weakness those decadent children have spread! Simply absurd, unacceptable.'** Needless to say, Bael was disappointed at the power the Messiah had sensed from the devils, though it was probably good for Minato if the demon king was horrified of what happened to his people.

Demons weren't exactly benevolent rulers that should have been running a school filled with humans in the first place.

Metatron was trying, in vain, to keep the peace, and not being helped by Helel's taunting guffaws at the demonic powerhouse, **'Calm down you big volcano of malice, it is pleasing to see that even children born from a sinful demon such as you can have kindness in their hearts,'**' The demon paid no note to the voice of God, his ire only increasing as Helel continued to laugh at his misery.

It was an embarrassment, for he, who had once set the world to fire with his prowess, made mortals and immortals alike quiver in primordial fear at the mere sight of his daunting visage. And now thi-this devil, his _descendent_,ran a _school_! _**FOR HUMANS!**_ Minato sighed before he entered the conversation, 'Remain coherent Bael, I still require your help to identify the devils. Maybe check to see if we can grab one of those evil pieces they use to transform humans into devils.'

**'Of course Messiah, I must request that you release me on this instant to set these fools straight, they must be taught the-'** Bael's eager request to come out and end the living stain on his reputation he viewed his descendent was stopped just as quickly by the Messiah.

'No,' Minato swiftly crushed any thought of letting Bael roam free, a fiery demon that was closer to a weapon of mass destruction than a corporeal being was a bad idea. A very bad idea.

Minato was finally drawn out of his mind as Sona snapped her fingers in front of his face, causing Roland's face to crinkle a little at the disrespect, before smoothing his face as Perseus looked at him with a little concern visible on his face,"Yes, president?"

'**One of Sitri's spawn,'**' Bael sneered before mentally spitting in disgust,, **'Another pathetic weakling, like her foolish ancestor. If only the weak excuse of a demon had listened to me about fire and destruction, and not chosen water and ice, his progeny could have been slightly less pathetic.'**'

The Sitri Devil firmed her lips into a frown, "As I was saying, _before you stopped paying attention_, this is your designated class, if you have any problems please approach the student council."

She briefly hesitated at first, but they chose to steam ahead, "And please stay clear of the Perverted Trio," with a stiff nod the devil was gone before any of the trio could respond, and he knew why.

Minato slowly turned to look at Roland with a raised eyebrow, Roland had a regretful expression on his face, still jittery around devils he had poured out killing intent at the devil the moment she had raised her hand towards his face, he sighed. That was troublesome, he entered the class with no words spoken, letting Perseus calm down the paladin, he was fairly certain the Sitri probably just got the scare of her life, if the devils weren't this weak, or he couldn't take the form of the strongest angels, then he would have been a little more worried. Trouble for future Minato to consider.

Sona slid down onto the floor, eyes wide as she shivered with raw, primal fear. Despite her scare, she was unable to stop her mind from wondering just what sort of creature the blonde must be to release an aura like that, her first instinct was to call her sister, the situation was clearly not within her power as a devil.

But at the end her pride as a devil won out and she decided to confront him on her own, with her peerage of course, she had never felt such hatred and malice directed at her throughout her life, and in a way this intrigued her, he would definitely make an excellent member of her peerage. With a shuddering breath the young devil picked herself off the floor with a small smile, she had some calls to make, with her resources it would be easy to make them her peerage members.

Inside the classroom all chatter quickly subsided as the three transfers stepped in, all of them took position next to Honoka, the homeroom teacher of the class, who quickly smiled at the three boys, before turning to the class, "Alright class! It may be a little sudden, but I have three new transfer students to introduce to you!"

The teacher turned to the trio, and gestured for them to step forward, which they did, "Please introduce yourself to the class."

"Hello, fellow students! My name is Roland, I'm a new transfer student from France, I enjoy horse riding and fencing! I hope we have a good time together."

Perseus was the next one stepping forward with a smile, "My name is Percy Miller, I come from New York, my hobbies are archery, and reading. I, too, hope we have a good time."

It was the Messiah's turn, as he looked at the class's faces filled with curiosity about the third boy, he released an inaudible sigh, "My name is Arisato Minato, I'm from Okinawa, let's have a good time," The class mentally face faulted at the Messiah's deadpan tone.

However soon the silence was replaced by excited chattering as the trio took their seats, and were interrogated by their fellow students about their homes so far away from Kuoh, everyone seemed to be in high spirits, except for three certain perverts who cursed them as 'damned pretty boys,' despite their clear hostility to the new members of the class Minato had taken an open seat near the 'leader' of the perverted trio, Issei Hyoudou, who looked at him suspiciously.

Minato stared at Issei with a powered gaze, though he made sure to hide any traces of holy energy he might have leaked, by this point he had switched the nearly incoherent Bael for a Persona more suited to check and manipulate souls, it was the first time he was using the Messiah persona without true manifestation, but it was his strongest persona when it came to identifying changes to a regular human soul.

Which is why he was currently staring at Issei Hyoudou, with curiosity about the symbiotic system surrounding his soul, if a regular human soul could be seen as a translucent ball of light, then Issei's soul was more unique, nearly completely crimson in color it had runes and chains practically oozing in holy energy surrounding his soul, some sort of a system he presumed was the Sacred Gear system.

There was just one problem, all the chains that kept the binding in their place, and the very placement runes for the sacred gear, and the assimilation matrix for the sacred gear and the user's soul seemed to be flaking off, and slowly falling apart. Though still years from actually collapsing it seemed without someone to power the system it would eventually implode, running out of the power it was using to run and contain so many dangerous deities.

It would be dangerous when it failed. Countless deities and beasts of all varieties violently ripping their way into the world through the souls of humans who wielded them. Whilst he was sure there were some who would stay true to their users, he didn't doubt for a second it was a tiny minority that wished to stay in their prisons when presented with an opportunity to run away.

He had already scoured through the souls of the remaining class and suppressed the sigh of relief at finding them to be perfectly normal human beings, with no modifications to their souls, dormant or otherwise.

"Oi pretty boy, what are you looking at?" Minato snapped out of his analyzing gaze, releasing a sigh, before looking at Issei and informing him of his plan, "We will talk during the break."

Looking at his rebellious look and the less than polite looks in his eyes, he pulled out a card from his pocket and handed it to the boy, Merlins said it'd make him more willing to talk.

Issei frowned, before looking at the card, from a preliminary analysis it looked like a typical playing card with the fool on it, except for one detail. The fool's face had Merlin's face, and it was winking at Issei, and blowing Minato raspberries from Issei's hand.

Issei's eyes widened, and he almost let the card fall before he caught himself, looking around and making sure no one was listening to them, he whispered his suspicion to Minato, all the suspicion disappearing from his voice already, "_Are you with the wizard?_"

It was a little unwise to actually talk about the wizard in a devil's school, but Minato ignored it since Issei wasn't really combat trained in any way, Minato nodded, "Follow me during the break."

This was the plan Minato had thought of, when he was off dreaming, in this world humanity was basically on its last legs. They were effectively used as pawns from both sides, with only one ineffective morally grey faction having benevolent intentions towards humans.

He would do his duty as a hero, he would protect Humanity regardless of the cost, to death, if needed. But he wasn't unaware of the possible implications of his death, as long as he lived he remained an arsenal of heroes for Humanity, and he could probably protect humanity with just himself and his Persona alone, but if he died… that was the end of Humanity's heroes, they would go down with him.

So he had decided to create a new faction. A faction of heroes, of hope bringers and mentors, the golden generation that would raise the next generation of heroes.

They would be the watchdogs of humanity, keeping the most fragile and weak race of all the beings in the world safe from the shadows, they would also be the ones to rear a new generation of those long forgotten by time.

For centuries this world had not seen a human hero, legends like Perseus, Heracles, Sigmund, or Arthur had been absent for centuries, despite the best efforts of Heaven to prop up the Church as a faction for humanity it was too weak, it couldn't take any action against the fallen or the devils, even as they put more strain on a decaying system, by forcing the sacred gears built for a human soul to accommodate devils that were not planned for by God.

This is where a new legend would start, the start of the newest epoch in human history, a new age of heroes to take back all the lost ground over the years. He would ask Issei to let them train him as one of the guardians of humanity. The first hero of the twenty-first century. The first hero humanity would receive in a _long_ time.

Whilst the Messiah contemplated on his plans, and Issei's part in them, the hero to be's thoughts fell back to his near-death experience with the fallen angel, before in what was a remarkable, if regretful, display of mental strength his perverse nature prevailed over his trauma, "_Why'd you have to be bishonen though?_" he muttered, eyes widening as he remembered the wizard didn't look bad either, he looked up at the blonde and the brunette easily charming the remaining class, his face fixed with a horrified expression, "_An entire group of them!_"

Issei spent the remaining period mourning the fact that an entire bishounen group was behind saving his life, a bittersweet experience.

~O~

At their temporarily chosen home, the British wizard was continuing his scouting, just on a global scale. The first task Merlin had taken upon himself was to search Albion for any potential allies, the memories he inherited from this world attested to the lineage of great knights and heroes that existed in Albion, and above all, wished to check if his old friend's line still continued on.

Deep inside he knew he was being impatient, as the Messiah had told him they'd be going to Albion as soon as the security of Kuoh could be confirmed, but he couldn't help himself, as his desire for his homeland overpowered his restraint, fueled even more than the memories he inherited.

Next to him the archangel of death silently observed the wizard, she had missed him in his life, being in Samael's prison for the entirety of it, only knowing of the wizard from his legend, and the legacy he left behind.

When given the opportunity to join her brother in training, or observing his spellwork the choice was clear, being a user of magic herself she was very curious about his clairvoyant spell, it was clearly more advanced than anything Heaven had used during the great war.

And so the wizard cast one of his strongest clairvoyance spells, one that he had used to successfully find and overpower an evil dragon's wards in the past, on the location of Camelot, or at least where the castle should have stood.

The mirror he was using as a conduit for his magic glowed impotently for a brief moment before the magical wards around Camelot fired up briefly to check the source of magic, before dying down after confirming the source to be Merlin himself, causing a jovial smile to bloom on his face.

The curiosity over his joy finally broke through Azrael's silence, "A good find?"

Merlin chuckled, nodding at her, "Indeed, my dear, the wards I lay around Camelot centuries ago still maintain their prowess to date."

"Is that not a normal occurrence, wizard?" She asked with confusion lining her voice, "With your prowess, I would doubt even millennia would truly let your wards be lost into the sands of time."

"In most cases, that would be the case," He conceded, thinking about the sealed dragon near the north pole, "But Camelot's wards were laid over a century by me, something that required an anchor be used, which required maintenance by those of Arthur's blood."

Azrael's eyes lit up at the name, letting out an understanding sound, "So that's what you're looking for? Descendents of Albion's King?"

Rather than replying in affirmative, Merlin waved his hand over the mirror, causing a gargantuan castle to appear, a quasi-city, really, that's what Camelot was at the end of his life, and it seemed like it kept the characteristics of a city.

At the center of the citadel, a fortress overlooked the settlement, with multiple rings of walls surrounding the population that had settled in the settlement, and what a mighty settlement it was!

Despite its age clearly showing in the narrow winding streets and the tiny brick houses, and the walls surrounding each layer of the city, nearly two hundred thousand humans still lived in Camelot and its surrounding settlements.

Abandoning the overview of the Castle for a look at the old practice halls, Merlin beamed at the result, a young man practiced swordplay using Arthur's old sword, not Excalibur, something that did earn a raised brow from Merlin, who filed the information away to investigate later.

The sword in the youth's hand was none other than Caliburn, lighting up briefly during his practice against a younger male that seemed to be using an inferior sword, but still held on admirably against the older one of the duo.

Looking at their footwork Merlin smiled wryly, though there was a difference of magnitudes between them and Arthur they still satisfied his and firmed his faith that Albion would remain safe with the Pendragon line still alive, "_Your blood still runs strong old friend_, "He murmured with a smile."

"Britain always was an oddity, even with Europe being a raging battlefield for half a century it was one of the few places that remained safe," Azrael mused out loud, at hearing Merlin's murmuring.

"Was that what you were looking for? Descendents of your ward?"

Merlin shook his head, "That was just to sate my personal curiosity, in truth, I am meant to seek out these chess pieces that convert humans to devils, to further my research into reversing the effect.

With his attention on his primary task, Merlin replicated the magical signature of the evil pieces he obtained when he met the Sitri heir and cast a different spell this time, one meant to seek out the same magical signature across the Town and it's nearby areas.

"How interesting," The Wizard said, looking at the resulting map, with each blip representing a converted devil.

Looking at the Angel he preempted her question, "Well, though there is a significant population of those meant to be in the underworld, the converted devils seem to be clustered."

"Wizard! I would like to join you in this hunt for devil-" Before Azrael could even finish both of them felt the slight displacement of air and turned to face a grinning Samael, armored in brilliant white armor, no small amount of eagerness hiding in his eyes.

"So. When are we hunting hellspawn?" The Angel asked his grin still there with a red hue in his eyes.

"Were you eavesdropping this entire time?!" The female angel asked him with a pout.

"What? Me? Spying? Why I never!" He boisterously proclaimed with a Cheshire grin.

Merlin chortled at the two siblings, "To answer both of you, very well, both of you may join me in hunting the devils."

Merlin honed on to a group of weak fainter signatures he had associated with the council of the Sitri before grunting in annoyance as he saw the much more significant signatures of non-reincarnated devils around the school, significantly stronger than the devils in the school.

With the school being too noticeable he turned his eye towards more isolated signatures, that were trying to remain hidden. These were hidden away in a church, another abandoned one, though this one was in a fairly public road and not as damaged as the other one Roland had redecorated quite liberally.

He nodded at the angles and moved towards the door, briefly turning it into a portal, his eyes flared azure blue as he concentrated and cast two spells to disguise the angels and shifted his own attire to a more sedate suit.

"Refrain from engaging with the devils unless we're attacked, I don't think we want to reveal the presence of multiple angels in the town just yet."

Walking into the portal he was followed by the two angels, who looked like a normal European duo, with their wings invisible to the world, Samael walked in after Merlin, with Azrael moving forward before suddenly remembering Asia, summoning a white dove, she sent it to the nun with a message about going out for a while and stepped through the portal.

Merlin looked at the church lying slightly down the road, it was hidden by weak illusions, meant to disguise it rather than truly hide it, he looked at Samael, before slightly narrowing his eyes, "No unsanctioned murder."

Samael frowned, he would have loved to kill the devils indiscriminately, for in his view they had much to answer for but the Messiah, and now Merlin, had strictly ordered to not kill any devils unless necessary and he himself wished to avoid killing those that were resurrected with no choice of there own, "Is it one of those unlucky devils?"

Samael personally held no qualms in slaying devils, that too, with not a hint of guilt but even he was hesitant in killing those who had no fault in becoming what they had become.

Merlin nodded as they took to the street, "We're not killing the devil, just going to capture the devil for research and see if I can make the evil piece leave the devil safely,"

Samael just grunted in discomfort, getting smacked on the head by Azrael, "Don't be a dummy brother."

Merlin turned his head and sighed, "I understand your frustration, the last time you saw them it was open war. But I _need_ active pieces to properly figure out just what's happening here, and if possible reclaim their humanity for them."

Samael nodded at him, he had been imprisoned before Merlin had lived but he knew enough of his legend from his siblings to not doubt the intentions of the mage, "I still don't see what you needed me and Azrael for, I highly doubt any devil will give much trouble to you."

"You underestimate the power of symbolism, your father represents hope for many humans and his angels carry his light, I hold hope that your acceptance might help them be at ease," Merlin shrugged at his incredulous look, "Or they might be more willing to help us with your presence."

Samael nodded at the latter part, weakened as they were, twelve winged angels were still in a tier of their own, it would take something akin to a demon to force him down easily at this point, anything weaker would be hard-pressed to do so without major injury.

Satisfied with the wizard's justification for having them accompany him, the two angels followed him towards the church, unknowingly heading into a confrontation with one of the worst of the modern generation of devils.

It would be the first of many sparks that would strain relations between the factions, with two archangels and a hero coming to a direct confrontation with a devil from one of the seventy-two pillar families.

**~o~o~o~o~o~**

Minato was followed by Perseus, who was acting as his escort while Roland fetched Issei, who was tearfully torn from the other two perverts while heading towards their peeking spot he was half dragged to a secluded corner by Roland, whose instincts as a Paladin almost made him swat at the other two brats with his sword.

When they came to a stop near under a tree inscribed with runes to hide their activities, Issei finally stopped pouting, due to the intense look Minato was giving him.

Minato had once more equipped the Messiah and was observing his soul in greater detail, and the second analysis only confirmed his earlier findings, "Very troubling," his murmur caused Roland and Issei's eyes to divert back to him, having started another conversation on Issei's morals.

The chain was a beautiful work of art that resonated with him but it was resonating in a bad way, it was calling for help. A majestic work of soul-based magic that was flawed due to one reason, it was based on the big man upstairs continuing to anchor the gears with his own, much stronger, soul. With him being unavailable, it was bound to decay over time.

"Minato-san, why'd you always start brooding? I skipped peeping on the club for this you know?"

Minato smiled wryly at his boisterous proclamation, this was another thing that confounded him, Sacred Gears were powerful instruments supposed to be humanity's defense against the supernatural. For them to be relegated to a lottery was absurd, even catastrophic, to Humanity's continued health.

He stole a glance at Perseus, his easy smile reassuring both Issei and him, he held his body in a relaxed poise but was undoubtedly ready to jump into action within a second. His legend was, well, legendary, one of the noblest heroes throughout history, one of the earliest ones too.

Looking at Issei the Messiah internally sighed, he didn't measure up to the heroes of the past, but that wasn't a fair comparison. His Persona, the ones who were human heroes, were hardened heroes representing the peak of their respective legends, they all had humble beginnings as well.

Leaving that aside, the boy had potential, though his perversion went beyond acceptable limits - peeping like that wasn't exactly legal - his heart was still innocent, though filled with lust. His base instincts were still just, and if trained properly, Issei, too, could be a legendary hero.

"Tell me Issei," Minato started, pausing briefly with a smile, "Do you seek the truth?"

The boy bit his lip, before nodding hesitantly, "I already know about the magician and the flying cow, a little more won't harm me, will it?"

"Wrong," Roland said, sympathetically clutching his shoulder.

Issei looked at Minato's somber face, Roland's comforting smile, and at Perseus, who didn't turn his eyes away from the ground.

"Oi, what's with the sad faces!" Issei demanded with false bravado, shrugging Roland's hand off his shoulder, "Knock it off! I'm the one getting bad news and you're all acting like it's your fate being damned!"

Minato sighed at his bravado before nodding at him, "From the moment you were born, you were both cursed and blessed by God."

Looking at his confused face, Minato sighed and sat down on the grass, leading Roland and Issei to sit down as well, whilst Perseus chose to continue leaning on the tree, considering the more in-depth knowledge he'd been getting by scanning the Sacred Gear he probably needed to explain Issei's situation himself.

"I won't mince the situation, Issei, if you want to live out your life as a regular human peacefully," Minato took in a deep breath, releasing it slowly, what he would do next was strategically stupid. Issei had an extremely powerful sacred gear, one that could single-handedly change the course of entire wars.

He steeled his will, and yet, he wouldn't be a good hero if he didn't even offer him the last offer, a way out.

"If you don't want to be involved with the supernatural world, then say so now, and we'll protect you and yours till the very end," Roland's eyes widened at that, Perseus nodded approvingly.

"You are… powerful," He said slowly, "Probably more powerful than Merlin."

"The wizard that saved me?" He asked, surprised, receiving a nod from Minato his mind ran wild at that idea, behind his back both Perseus and Roland looked baffled at that news, "More powerful than him…" He murmured under his breath, thinking about Merlin, and how easily he maintained control of the situation.

"What's the catch?" Looking at Minato's raised eyebrow he steamed on, "There has to be a catch for all that power, right?"

"Of course," Perseus said softly, "Power always comes with a price."

"For you, as a human, the price is steeper than that for an angel, god or demon," Perseus gestured at the four people involved in the conversation, including himself, "People like us, people with great power with the willingness to look temptation in its face and deny it, are a constant target of bad intentions from other factions."

"That thing was an angel?" Issei asked, sounding appropriately horrified.

Roland snorted, and Minato wryly smiled, "It was a fallen angel, one that has fallen from their father's grace," Minato explained.

Issei just stared at him, his face a mixture of many different emotions, "I can live my life as a regular human? Without any consequences?"

Minato gave him a strained smile, "It would be no small loss for Humanity, but yes. No strings attached, you'll be safe, your family will be safe, we'll make sure of that."

A war was going on inside Issei's head, on one hand, it was an excellent offer, he could live his life out safe from the supernatural world, but, he could be a hero.

Issei looked at the three heroes, his eyes still conflicted, "_People will get hurt if I hide, wouldn't they?_"

Minato looked away, unwilling to lie to the boy, but Perseus did uncross his arms, and ruffled his hair, "Leave that to us, eh kid?"

The Greek hero grinned at the youth, "Have some faith in your seniors pulling their weight, yeah?"

Issei looked at the man, his throat feeling very dry, "That wasn't an answer…"

Roland snorted lightly, drawing a warning look from Perseus, "Do you want honesty?"

Receiving a nod from Issei the paladin continued on, "Yes, your loss would undoubtedly be felt by Humanity and our own odd group of heroes."

"But that isn't your burden to shoulder," Roland sighed, his tone taking on a nostalgic tone, "I knew many great men who were champions of humanity, the greatest of them often ended up giving everything up for their people. For them, for us, nothing is more important than the safety of Humanity."

"No one has ever become a hero because they were conscripted to become one," Minato mused.

"It's not going to be easy," Issei said, more of a statement than a question.

Perseus smiled at Issei, ruffling his hair, "If it were easy, everyone would do it because this is the best job in the world. Despite everything. Because of everything."

Looking at Issei, Perseus grinned, "Those gifts of yours, given to you by God," Issei nodded, "It gives you the potential to do a lot of good deeds."

"I can't promise you much, young man, but I can promise you one thing, as a hero, you'll never stand alone," Perseus's grin seemed infectious, quickly spreading to Roland and even leading to Minato cracking a small smile.

Issei looked at them, the three men all radiated an aura of sorts, a palpable field of charisma, he wasn't blind, even in class, he had seen the respect they'd garnered from everyone, a sort of subconscious respect given to them by the other students and the teachers.

When he was a child, he was always put to sleep with stories of heroes, he wanted to help people, be seen with the same sort of respect they were given, to be seen in the same light as the heroes Irina's father told them off.

He glanced at them, a bittersweet smile on his face as he got up, this was the closest he'd ever been to his former dream, "I'll have to decline your kind offer."

Roland jumped up, wanting to say something, but stopped as Perseus clutched his shoulder, holding him back.

"If you ever need help, you can come to us," Minato said with a sigh, "Regardless of your choice we will protect you."

"Thank you, I promise I'll not tell anyone about you all," He turned back, going towards the school building.

"Issei!"

Issei stopped, hearing Roland's voice, who was being given a disapproving look by Perseus and drew out a small sigh from Minato.

"Why not?"

"I would love to help people!" He shouted back, "But I think our dreams are not compatible, I hope we'll still be friends, though!"

As he entered the building he didn't hear the sad sigh from Roland or the following conversation about the other people in the building with a sacred gear.

Even as Perseus and Roland talked on the merits or demerits of openly working with the local devils, who seemed benign, Minato had slumped back, talking with his Persona about the Sacred Gear system.

Minato sat in his assigned chair, they had been discussing the gear with the information he had gathered, and from their work so far it seemed fairly clear that the situation was untenable yet not easily fixable, if fixable at all, "As long as God or his child in control of the system doesn't act, we can't do anything, can we?"

Thanatos looked helplessly at his master whilst Hades replied steadily, "We can still probably rig the system, with Michael's help, to be better, maybe make a choice on some new attributes, it'll work for about a year before going back to it's damaged state," Hades looked disgruntled at accepting his inability to fix the system.

"How he made this behemoth of a system in the first place is inconceivable, it's feeding off the faith of his followers and angels to continuously grant the gears and cycle them back on the user's death, the meritocratic feature seems to have been disabled after the population crossed five hundred million, if I gather that correctly from my other self's memories."

"Undoubtedly any fortune-telling ability of the system probably failed due to the massive increase in the numbers of humans, and Michael being significantly weaker than his father," Solomon mused, briefly interrupting Prometheus.

Prometheus nodded at his fellow Persona, "It is pretty clear the big guy up there wasn't able to program it to its fullest extent but still we should be able to rig it for a year as Hades said, a generation of heroes would be a boon for humanity," He faked a shudder, "In its current state a demented serial killer is as likely to get get a sacred gear as the holiest of saints, probably more likely, considering the numerical superiority of demented serial killers compared to holy saints."

Odin shook his head, "The system will start killing its users at one point, a permanent fix is much more desirable than any temporary fix is undesirable, we need to either fix it or stop it make to sure it doesn't dispatch gears that will bolster the enemy, perhaps we should gather our own faction of heroes and grant them gears? If we can, that is."

Solomon's eyes lit up, "A faction of heroes would be the most effective indeed, especially with the golden generation of heroes guiding them it would be hard for them to go wrong!"

Minato just looked at them, they had been unable to come up with a permanent solution beyond rigging the sacred gear system for a year or somehow stopping it and opening a hero academy and granting sacred gears there, whilst the idea had merit and he wished to open a hero academy there was so much he had yet to know anything, he'd probably have to converse with real Hades again at length again to catch up on what happened.

There was also the minor problem of him being barely recognized as the messiah by the system, retrieving gears out of a fragile system might backfire on them, "It is a meritable idea, I'll see if I can find some young heroes to mentor at a later date, our current candidate seems to be headed in a different direction."

After some time of more brainstorming, they finally dispersed and he found himself blinking blearily as he saw the back of his blonde guard but not the raven-haired Greek that had been a part of their entourage, "Roland, where's Perseus?"

"Perseus felt someone was spying on us, he put on his helm and went to take a look," Roland looked at Minato with curiosity, "Any hope of granting powers to new heroes?"

Minato just looked down and shook his head before equipping Thanatos this time, though not letting him manifest, and going onwards and re-entering the school, followed closely by a disappointed Roland who had hoped the Messiah could grant powers to their chosen candidates.

He would clarify the Sacred Gear system to Roland later, and they would head out to scout other wielders to be heroes.

Outside the class, Issei was about to enter having removed the previous conversation from the forefront of his mind almost entirely and ready to continue his day usual, before being interrupted.

However, before Issei could enter the classroom he was stopped by a certain someone pulling his sleeve, he looked around before looking slightly lower and spotting a silver-haired girl known more commonly as the school mascot than her name, Koneko Toujou, his pervert sense was already tingling before his sleeve was tugged again, "Koneko-chan?"

Koneko just looked at him blankly, "Pervert senpai has been called by Kaicho."

Issei's head went to multiple places, before going blank, at him being summoned by one of the beauties of the school, ignoring the soft sigh from his invisible follower, who followed the two.

Perseus was now sporting an entirely different look under his invisibility, gone was the school uniform he was wearing, his head was covered by a helm that seemed to be pitch black, and wearing traditional greek armor.

A sheath hung on his waist, with the legendary Greek sword that was vital in overthrowing Chronos and Ouranos, and a shining golden shield with a motif of an owl drawn over it was slung across his back. His sandals had little wings on each side.

The hero was fully armed with his legendary equipment, ready to save his young charge should he need it, but content to remain hidden if he was not needed.

Devils were creatures of desires, whilst heroes were an embodiment of virtues. Perhaps it truly was not in his fate to be a hero but many questions remained- would Issei choose to be a devil over a hero, and how much was the devil willing to concede to recruit Issei over to her side?

**~o~o~o~o~o**

Merlin was many things, calling him the most powerful human was probably an understatement, at this moment however he was confused they had entered the church expecting to find another run-down church, under those wards, only to find a fully functioning church right on the edge of Tokyo, and thus in Youkai territory (not that he knew that) rather than Devil territory, the weird thing was how it was staffed by sixteen devils, all reincarnated and one that was significantly more powerful than her comrades, with a single non-reincarnated devil in the antechamber of the church.

As he sat on a pier he was heavily confused, so were the two angels, why were a group of devils posing as a group of nuns? Merlin figured it probably had something to do with the devil sitting in a separate room, a kink, maybe?

"Can I help you, gentlemen?" It was the leading devil, she smiled and yet Merlin saw the fakeness from a mile away he smiled back, he'd learned much during his time in Camelot, and there were far better fakers than her back then.

Behind his smile he charged a powerful mind reading spell, "Say sister, is there a priest around, we three seem to be the most unlucky lot, we thought there'd be a greater amount of churches but it seems only this one was open today when we needed a holy man to consult us on matters of faith."

Worry flashed in her for a minute before she shook her head, "I'm afraid our priest is rather busy and unavailable for a consultation right now," She nodded towards the cross ignoring her headache putting it to being a devil in enemy territory, "Though you may pray at your discretion, and seek relief in that manner if you must."

Merlin was already sorting through her memories, at first, he had intended to do a cursory light search, that thought had run away the moment he had encountered the most recent night she had with the devil in the other chamber he had cast a linking spell, letting the two angels see what he was seeing.

The more he saw the more it horrified him, putrid rage begun to bellow but seeing her face, and her suffering sorrow came quicker and deeper, "I'm sorry my dear," Samael was silently sitting next to him, it was akin to a volcano about to erupt, the silence before the storm, Azrael had her head down, her hands nearly breaking the pews near her, as she struggled to control herself.

The nun looked confused before shaking her head, "I should be the one sorry, sir, I'll see to it our priest is here next time you visit, sir."

Merlin shook his head as he closed his eyes, rage boiling within him as even he almost broke his calm facade, "What ought a good man feel?" He asked, with a solemn tone.

He opened his eyes, they blazed blue much like the barrier that had surrounded the church to make no outsider suspicious, "But sorrow at your undeserved fate?"

The Nun's eyes widened, at his blue eyes and his companions shaking shoulders, yet Samael restrained himself if he killed such poor souls even by accident whilst they were devils they would never be granted the relief of heaven, so he shuddered as he controlled his rage, wailing at his own impotence at helping the ones that were meant to be under the protection of heaven.

Merlin's eyes darted towards two of the pawns, as identified by her memories. The nuns were gathering in the center of the church, with one of them going to call the monster, but two pawns- they looked no older than seventeen, girls really- stood still, still not broken they had hope that these two men could do the unthinkable, free them from the monster that had fooled them.

"Take cover behind me, I swear it on my magic no more harm shall come to you so long as my magic runs strong on this earth!" Merlin proclaimed, a silver staff flashing into his hand, thrumming with magical prowess far beyond the range of anyone in their group.

At his power being visible stronger than their master, any sign of remaining hesitation vanished as both of them almost ran behind him.

The devil -the one in the other chamber- came out, finally choosing to intervene as the situation escalated, this wasn't the first time the church had sent assassins after him, despite the outer circle hating the turned devils but the rage the cardinals felt could not be overstated, they were keen on killing him, regardless of the consequences, especially after his last target infuriated them so much they had sent Dulio after the devil, he would arrive soon, though not many knew about his mission, not even the heavenly authority that would have vetoed such an obvious breaking of the status quo.

"Leave now wizard," It was a new voice, but by now it was almost familiar to Merlin, he looked lecherously at the two ladies that took shelter behind the Archmage of Camelot, "And tell those pesky clergymen of yours these nuns are mine! You can't free them because they're devils now, we don't want a war, do we?"

He grinned lecherously, "And mine to do with as I wish, now do as any good lapdog of the church must, and go back into the hole you came out from."

"And what if you were to die?" Merlin's voice was cold, his magic prepared, the two nuns behind him were already guarded by two light blue shields.

Azrael remained behind, murmuring something into the ears of the two girls, whilst Samael was finally standing up, his face still steely.

The monster sneered, "Then the factions go to war again because unlike you I'm a clan heir!"

He smirked at the troubled look on Merlin's face, "Yes, you understand now, don't you? What're twelve lives for millions? A fair trade, no? Especially since you're so pathetic compared to the four Satans."

Merlin clicked his tongue, horrible death was no longer an option it seemed, for the moment, "It is true, that the Church cannot arrest you, and heaven cannot kill you."

Looking at the horrified girls behind him he sighed, "But, at the same time, Camelot does not answer to Heaven, nor to Hell! Foul beast of lust, in the name of Camelot and King Arthur, cease your lunacy and surrender before you are smitten from the surface of the planet!"

Eh, he'd make it work, if the devils demanded justice after he showed them proof of such abuse then neither the Messiah nor he would care regardless of their demands. Arthur wouldn't stand for it either.

Two magic circles with the crest of Camelot appeared next to him, unrecognized for Diodora was not old enough to know of it, "Or die most painfully cretin," venom dripped from his words as magic gathered and his capturing spells, his chain was ready and his patience for the man was quickly running out.

"Camelot? A fool's tale won't scare me, wizard, is that the stupid attempt to hide the church's involvement this time? A tired old kingdom that is far past their prime?"

The devil looked at his magic, and the extended an olive branch to Merlin, "Why do you care, wizard? These nuns are nothing but sacks of flesh anyways, would you not leave in the name of peace? They are my property, after all, I got them through fair practices, regardless of your opinion of those practices."

Diodora nodded at him, "How about I stop chasing the Holy Maiden and you-"

Samael had enough by that point, he had enough of this smug madness, his father would have acted to end this injustice no matter the consequences. This was an injustice, and injustice was not tolerated by those of heaven, Merlin's bluff be damned, "**Who do you think you are devil**?"

The wall had been breached, his patience had been quickly torn up by the devil's arrogant attempt at bargaining with something he didn't have.

Both Merlin and Diodora looked at him, Diodora gulped, only the strong used their power so wastefully to project because they had it in spades to spare, "I am Diodora Astaroth! clan heir of the house of Astaroth, please I implore upon you let us not start that whole mess of a war again, truly this is not worth-"

"**The likes of Belial fled when I gave battle, just who do you think you are?**" Samael was enraged, no he was beyond rage he was furious, the spell containing his form shattered, he unfurled his wings, "**Like father used to say, better start a war than to let the unjust rule!**" the nuns on Diodora's side were shocked by the presence of an angel, their instincts as devils made them want to puke or run in terror, but the faith in them, the nuns who were so battered and bruised that they had been suppressed by this emotionless state, a dam broke free even in the queen the oldest of them as most slumped to the floor crying, due to the end of a nightmare, from the hope he inspired or just exhaustion from everything that had been done to them.

As for Diodora? he just shivered as the rage of the holiest kind directed at him before trying to back up only to be pushed forward by his own queen, "You trai-"

The rest of his words were left unheard as he was slammed into a wall by Samael who had his throat in a chokehold, "**Focus on your impending destruction boy,**" Diodora paled he knew that ball of energy floating close to his face it felt too similar to the power of destruction held by the clan of Bael for it to be anything else, before he yelped as he was suddenly thrown into another wall, "**Had you not been needed alive I would have killed you on sight cretin.**"

Merlin's chain rose and stabbed the Astaroth through his stomach, and it was even more painful than a sword as it was a blunt object that pushed through his chest, "I hardly need him not in pain," Merlin smiled at the increasing terror on the devil's face, he prepared another spell, one of the most terrible mind ripping spells he had known, "Hadn't you been taught the golden rule as a boy?"

Blue lights ripped into the Astaroth clan heirs head as he screamed in pain, his mind being decimated by the magic of Merlin, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

The nuns gathered themselves from the floor and saw Diodora writhe in agony for fifteen minutes, his voice going to new heights they thought a voice couldn't go before today.

It inspired a sense of awe and terror alike, in their minds, to see the man that had tormented them be destroyed so ruthlessly, to see him be harmed so deeply by a _human_.

Before his screams suddenly stopped and Merlin's eyes stopped glowing blue, Diodora Astaroth lay on the ground more dead than alive.

"Should I destroy the body?" Samael curied, a ball of light already in his hand, ready to completely annihilate the devil's body.

Merlin nodded, "No need to leave unnecessary hints of our presence."

A ball of light touched the devil's body, and within a second it started dissolving it into nothingness, courtesy of Samael's own power related to destruction, though his power was most effective against dragons it still remained potent against demons and those that came from them.

At the same time the king of the peerage finally died, with his body being completely gone, it removed the control over the power lent to his peerage members by their pieces, and the results immediately showed.

The broken cap let more raw power channel into their unready bodies giving them a boost and mutating the peerage, as was the fate of a kingless peerage.

Or at least that would have happened if Merlin had not locked away the power of the evil piece from the peerage, a blue bracelet appearing on all of their hands.

The more powerful members of the peerage, and the weaker ones, still managed to remain standing after being cut off, but the vast majority fell, heaving and huffing at the sudden loss of a reservoir of power.

"I'll have to request you all to bear with it for the moment, that'll keep it at bay, for the moment," Merlin said, looking at the Queen, who remained standing, and nodded at him, a tired yet grateful look in her eyes.

He smiled reassuringly at the women, who were more than willing to ignore his questionable treatment of their former master, "At the moment we can't remove the pieces, but I hope to be able to turn you back one day."

The Queen shook her head, "Regardless of whatever you do next, milord, even if you do not turn us back, you have my eternal gratitude for freeing us from that _monster_."

He grinned confidently, "Come now, ye of little faith if ye thinks a mere devil artificer can outsmart the strongest wizard of Camelot."

Turning a little more sober he still maintained an easing smile on his face, "While I'm afraid we can't get you refuge here, I offer you unconditional refuge," He thinned his lips, thinking about the Vatican, last memory his former self had had of them, it wasn't exactly pleasant, "Unfortunately, I can't do much else, once we contact the Vatican we could have someplace set up for you, or we can settle you into one of my old safehouses."

Merlin was cut off by one of the two pawns, "We are devils, milord, and utterly ruined by that _beast_," The nun smiled sadly, "I thank you Lord Wizard, Lord Angel, your rescue was a calming balm on my wounds, but I can only ask you of one thin, death."

At that a soft gasp broke out from her sister, who immediately clung to her, unshed tears in her eyes, "_No, please, we just became free! There's so much to live for, Lord Wizard promised his aid and refuge from this living hell! Please! Don't-_"

The sister was silenced by a head pat an a similar tearful look from her sister, "It is the best that I can request from you, it is already very kind of you to rescue us, even though we are devils. I ca-can't live like this! Seeing his face in every shadow, hearing his mocking laugh every minute I sleep! Such a life is no life at-!"

She was silenced by Azrael hugging her, her light considerably softer than her brother, and embracing the devil rather than harming her, "**Child, I cannot presume to know what you went through, but I am a veteran of the Great War.**"

"**I have faced down demons that made Everest look like a play toy, I have **_**broken**_** devils that shook the very foundations of reality with their power**," She smiled at the devil, "**I cannot promise you relief instantly, but know this, you are Father's child as much as I am!**"

"**I have seen corruption that ruined the first men, I was there when evil first took hold in the heart of man."**

"**I have seen evil, and I have seen corruption that brought angels to their knees,**" She clasped her shoulders, smiling at her, watching the devil slowly wipe her unshed tears, "**You are not evil. You are not corrupted. You are wounded, not ruined.**"

She sighed, "**Know that my words cannot heal you, but time can, but, should you choose to stay, know that time heals all wounds, and I will be there for you, every step of the way.**"

Samael smiled at the devil, "**I have killed thousands of demons and devils, kid, I can tell you one thing,**" Pointing a finger towards her heart, he flashed her a thumbs up, "**That heart belongs to a human, and not a devil."**

"_T-hank you_," She murmured, trying to control her tears, before giving up and hugging the female angel in front of her, "I...don't want to die."

Merlin grinned at the fire in her eyes, "You gonna be okay kiddo?"

She smiled back at him, shy but firm, "Maybe not, but I have faith."

"**Sometimes that's all it takes,**" Samael rumbled, with a nod at Merlin he looked over the devils one last time, all of them looked a lot better, hearing Azrael's words, and smiled at the Wizard, "**I think we ought to send them to their new home, wizard, it has been a tiring day for them.**"

Merlin raised an eyebrow, "Who put you in command?"

Grinning cheekily at the angel's disgruntled grunt he tapped his staff onto the ground opening a gate, "Please settle in, I'll see to you in a minute as soon as me and Angel boy have some words."

"**I shall help them settle in,**" Azrael said, before finally letting go of her power, letting her voice turn back to its normal state, "_Almost forgot to turn it off_," She murmured embarrassedly and blushing a little, going alongside the nuns, leaving her brother and Merlin behind.

The nuns had wanted to say no to such a generous offer when Merlin had made it, but Azrael and Samael's words had sparked a new flame in _all_ of them, such kindness was beyond what they had reasonably expected from anyone, such kindness inspired a new hope in them, for a new future.

"Did they go to our base in Kuoh, Merlin?" Samael asked with some worry in his voice, mostly thinking about their emotional state, dealing with the emotional ones was always Gabriel's thing, and as much as he hated to admit it, he had a problem with those from the underworld, his instincts wanted to slay all the devils there, tough as it was, he maintained a tight lid on the part of his mind calling for their total eradication.

"Too much risk if they stayed here, they _are_ technically stray devils now, after all, and mostly powerless to boot," Merlin mused, thinking about what he'd learnt from the Astaroth's mind.

"I sent them to a castle in France, one of my old hideouts when I used to be alive, I used it to practice my alchemical skills there," That reminded him to add checking all of his hideouts and prisons soon, he had sealed many a dangerous enemies in his lifetime, and it would do to ensure they remained sealed, "I remotely reactivated the wards before sending them there, they'll be fine, I'll make sure of that, besides they'll be human in no time," he ended the last part with a smug smile.

Samael looked at him with curiosity in his eyes, "Oh?"

Merlin shrugged, "let's just say I've got a fairly well-established understanding of the evil piece system."

Samael gave an impressed look at that, looking at the wizard with no small amount of surprise in his eyes, "It took the devils centuries to make this system and you reversed it all in mere minutes?"

Merlin gave a smug smile this time, "They were banging rocks to create fire whilst I created Caliburn, Clarent and was integral in creating Excalibur, all swords that could rip gods a new one easily," He grinned, "Besides that, the hard part of making an evil piece was already done by the devils. I just need to trace back the steps, a far easier job than starting from scratch."

Samael nodded before looking at the spot where the devil's body had been placed before dying, "Will the Messiah be angry?"

"I swear he is never angry," Merlin said with a chuckle, "Though I'm sure once I reveal our findings about the devil's misdeeds to him he'd probably agree with our decision," Merlin opened another gate, "I wonder if the devils the Messiah is with are similar to this one."

"I would hope not, it'd be one thing hiding this, entirely another thing hiding another rampage by Roland in such a public area."

Samael's eyes flared, "**If they are then their race is better dead than alive!**"

Merlin sighed, "Peace Samael, perhaps they aren't too bad as a race," as he stepped in the portal.

Samael grunted, slightly disgruntled, reigning in his hate for the devils was often hard. It had been millennia since the war but for Azrael and him, it was just a few years away. Or that's what it felt like.

He remembered his curse, the stabs he felt as any of his siblings fell to the demons, how he raged despite his curse. He remembered them all, and such a grudge, though he had attempted to bury the hatchet, this was a grudge even an angel could not let go off.

**~o~o~o~o~o**

**Betaed by: Wood and Chris4th**

**As usual, I'm all for some sweet shilling for feedback ;), feel free to drop feedback via reviews or dms, or you could even join my discord, lord knows bothering me helps a fair bit to get me working on updates.**


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